Chapter 1328: Abyss Ghost Crossing

Watching its soul fly uncontrollably toward Chen Ling, deep despair appeared in the centipede Poison Chief's eyes.

As a Poison Chief of the Abyss of Ghostly Mockery, it naturally knew what methods its King possessed. Any enemy who died at the King's hands would have their soul toyed with in the King's palm... It had thought that since it was a calamity of the Abyss of Ghostly Mockery, the King might spare it, but now it seemed that perhaps because it had foolishly challenged the King, the King did not intend to let it go.

At the thought of being thrown into that red paper umbrella to suffer endless torment and become one of the King's many toys, the centipede Poison Chief wished it could just dissipate into nothingness.

Unfortunately, the centipede did not understand soul arts, nor could it force its own soul to dissipate...

Just as the centipede despairingly closed its eyes, a palm gently gripped its throat. The centipede shuddered, prepared for endless pain, but after waiting for a long time, the pain never came.

It tentatively looked forward, only to see a figure draped in a bright red theatrical robe standing in the wind, one hand gripping the void before it, brows slightly furrowed, as if carefully studying something...

"It seems... feasible?" Chen Ling raised an eyebrow.

Before the centipede could recover, Chen Ling took a bone-carving knife from his robes with his other hand and shoved the centipede Poison Chief's soul directly into the knife!

The centipede Poison Chief felt a blur before its eyes and lost its perception of itself. When it regained consciousness, it was already in Chen Ling's hand... It was stunned for a long while before it gradually realized a fact...

It had become a bone-carving knife.

Or rather, it had become the "artifact spirit" of a bone-carving knife.

Chen Ling tossed the bone-carving knife in his hand aside, and it spun and fell to the ground with a light clatter.

Chen Ling still held his hand out, speaking calmly to the bone-carving knife:

"Return."

The centipede Poison Chief was startled. The next second, its soul exerted force, and two rows of centipede legs actually grew out from the sides of the bone-carving knife, spinning rapidly in the air, crossing the void like lightning, and flying back into Chen Ling's hand on its own.

A sharp glint flickered in Chen Ling's eyes.

Imprisoning the soul of a trophy within an object, giving it self-awareness and "life"—this was Chen Ling's new ability from the distorted Path of the Drama God—

[Abyss Ghost Crossing].

In a sense, [Abyss Ghost Crossing] could be considered a type of exotic poison. The deeper Chen Ling wounded an enemy and the more of this poison he injected, the more he could control the opponent's soul after they died and their soul left their body.

Therefore, although the centipede Poison Chief was not killed by Chen Ling's own hand, Chen Ling had wounded it the most severely, and the poison had long since permeated deep into its soul. Even if it ultimately died at Wu Yi's hands, it still belonged to Chen Ling as a trophy.

"I know you can hear me," Chen Ling said calmly to the bone-carving knife that had grown centipede legs.

The centipede Poison Chief's heart shook, causing the entire bone-carving knife to tremble.

"You hate me, I understand... You want to kill me, I can understand that too," Chen Ling said flatly.

"To be honest, I quite admire you. You have more grit and courage than any other Poison Chief. If I had been able to control this body and come to the Abyss of Ghostly Mockery sooner, perhaps many misunderstandings could have been avoided..."

"But things have reached this point, and there is no point in talking about that now."

"Now, I give you two choices:

First, become my poison blade and be used by me. I can guarantee that I won't deliberately abuse your centipede descendants, and after fifty years, I will release your soul to return to the heavens and earth.

Second, refuse me, and I will stuff your soul into the toilet of the palace restroom, never to rise again."

Although he said there were two choices, Chen Ling had actually only given it one path. If the centipede Poison Chief insisted on being stubborn and seeking death, Chen Ling would have no choice but to make its life worse than death.

The centipede Poison Chief was naturally not that stupid. It had originally thought it would be trapped in the red paper umbrella and tortured forever, but now that Chen Ling had given it a relatively comfortable "cage" and promised to release it in fifty years, it was naturally overjoyed!

It didn't hesitate to vibrate again, responding to Chen Ling.

It chose the first one.

Chen Ling gripped the handle of the bone-carving knife, tossed it gently upward, and as he pointed toward a cliff in the distance, his calm voice sounded again:

"Go."

*Whoosh—!!*

The next second, the bone-carving knife actually sped through the air on its own, crashing into the cliff at a speed invisible to the naked eye, shearing off a corner of the cliff!

Immediately after, the bone-carving knife's gravity control ability activated, suspending the falling rubble in mid-air, then circling around the knife before shooting back into the sky like missiles!

Just now, Chen Ling controlling the knife to return was his absolute authority as the controller; now, it was the centipede Poison Chief voluntarily cooperating with Chen Ling. Both its speed and attack power had increased several times over, and it didn't even require Chen Ling to split his focus to control it.

With such a Dao-foundation weapon capable of moving freely, Chen Ling's combat power had reached another level!

But Chen Ling's experiments didn't stop there.

As he gently raised his hand, another long-sealed ability was activated:

[Soul Recall Art]!

Inside the bone-carving knife, the centipede Poison Chief's soul suddenly flickered. Chen Ling seemed to have grasped something, opening his five fingers in the air, and a mass of lethal venom was secreted out of thin air!

This was the centipede Poison Chief's ability from when it was alive—a super-potent poison secreted from its body capable of killing an Eighth-Rank!

Soul Recall Art was an ability Chen Ling had extracted from Kong Wang a long time ago. It could awaken some of a soul's abilities from when it was alive for his own use, but the prerequisite was that Chen Ling needed to be in a state of "mastery" over that soul.

In the past, Chen Ling had no means to master souls, and this ability had been sealed away until now... But now, everything was different.

Once [Abyss Ghost Crossing] imprisoned a soul within an object, the "mastery" of that soul was complete!

[Self-Reconstruction of Biological Magnetic Fields and Consciousness Frequency Bands] allowed Chen Ling to see souls and modify his own soul;

[Abyss Ghost Crossing] allowed Chen Ling to stuff the souls of trophies into objects and use them for himself;

[Soul Recall Art] allowed Chen Ling to awaken the abilities of the souls he controlled from when they were alive, augmenting himself.

These three abilities formed a perfect closed loop in Chen Ling's hands, creating a unique and terrifying soul-manipulation system... And as Chen Ling killed more people in the future, this snowballing combat power would only grow stronger!

Chen Ling raised his hand, and the bone-carving knife flew precisely back into his hand, emitting a series of hums!

The gale stirred up by the bone-carving knife fluttered the hem of Chen Ling's theatrical robe, like a wild red beast surging over the countless poisonous insects of the Abyss of Ghostly Mockery, its hideous claws and fangs fully exposed...

Chen Ling couldn't help but burst into laughter!

"Today is a good day!"

"Bring me wine!!!"

"Tonight I... this King! Will drink until I drop!!"