Chapter 714: Returning to Heaven and Earth

"No..."

"No!! How is this possible?!!"

Brand maintained the massive alchemy array, watching with his own eyes as the millions of souls about to be condensed and refined began to break free from the control of his alchemy. His eyes widened in disbelief!

As the possessor of the Witch God Path, Brand understood human souls better than anyone. Souls are ethereal; in a sense, they are things from another dimension. Without special methods, the human eye couldn't even see them.

No matter how powerful a person was in life, their soul possessed no power after death. Therefore, Brand's alchemy was essentially about manipulating souls through pain, forcing them to aggregate and twist themselves...

But now, these souls had actually broken free from his control??

To Brand, the absurdity of this was like bacon about to be put into a pot suddenly coming back to life, growing wings, and flying out the window!

"The pain of the souls has been purified... Damn it! Is it that song? What the hell is that thing?!"

Brand was nearly frantic. He crazily poured his mental energy into the alchemy array. The red lightning roaming through the sea of souls became even denser, attempting to intensify the pain and drag these souls back.

The souls that had already begun to disperse and vanish were frozen once more, flickering between calm and distortion, as if two giant hands were wrestling in the invisible void!

Crack—

Red lightning flashed repeatedly, completely illuminating the souls beneath the firmament. All the survivors in the main city held their breath subconsciously as they watched this scene...

Then, they turned their eyes to the red-clad opera singer ascending to the sky.

Chen Ling's gaze was very calm.

He used the [Cloud Step] to ascend to the clouds; he used the [True Word] to spread his voice throughout the city; he used the [Requiem] to soothe the pain of all the souls, helping them break the shackles of alchemy and return to heaven and earth.

He had used three of the four basic secret techniques he learned in the Ancient Opera Treasury... and Chen Ling's foundation was more than just these.

This was the first time Chen Ling had sung the [Requiem] in actual combat, but the moment he sang the first line, he seemed to realize something. The weeping clouds in reality resonated with the lyrics of the song, and a familiar feeling surged into Chen Ling's heart!

Chen Ling took a deep breath, and in his mind, the scene of his Second Senior Sister, Luan Meige, singing the [Requiem] in the Aurora Domain to soothe millions of frozen, wronged souls surfaced...

He brushed his red sleeves, his figure gradually overlapping with that of his Second Senior Sister at the time, and two completely different timbres rang out from his throat simultaneously!

"'Oh, weeping soul,'"

"'Please gently close your eyes'..."

[Sleeve-Hand Swaying the Heavens]!

Although Chen Ling did not use any substantive attacks, under the bonus of this secret technique, his mental strength had reached an unprecedented peak, and the resonance of his soul reached its limit. In terms of the [Requiem] alone, he was no longer any weaker than his four senior brothers and sisters!

The moment these two lines of the song rang out, all the souls imprisoned beneath the clouds seemed to have their shackles in the void shattered by a sword, completely transcending the world!

Hum—!!

The wrestling in the void ended with the collapse of the alchemy array;

The next moment, the ocean formed by millions of souls, reflected by the red lightning filling the sky, surged toward the bright red opera robe. From a distance, it looked like a magnificent and vast current, swallowing Chen Ling within it!

Woo-woo-woo-woo—

Countless souls brushed past Chen Ling, and his bright red opera robe fluttered violently.

With the help of the red lightning, Chen Ling could see faces full of tears casting grateful looks at him. They were ordinary people who had been burned to death, slashed to pieces, or buried alive in this war; they were mothers, fathers, children, and the common people.

Among them, Chen Ling even saw a few acquaintances: the reluctant Yang Muquan, the abstract-looking Second Hall, and even the Witchcraft Association member who had been sat to death by a Shadow Toad in the chaotic battle just now...

Their expressions were all different, but they all followed the torrent of souls, sweeping past him like a gust of wind, and finally vanishing without a trace.

At the very back of the sea of souls, Chen Ling saw a familiar figure.

It was a young girl in an elegant dress, carrying a small leather suitcase in front of her, running over as if a bit nervous...

Perhaps because they were souls, Chen Ling couldn't see her face clearly. Only when the red lightning flashed occasionally could he vaguely see a hint of a familiar shadow.

She didn't brush past Chen Ling like the other souls; instead, she gently stopped.

Chen Ling didn't know if she was speaking, only that in those few seconds, time seemed to pass very slowly... The girl raised her translucent jade hand, reached toward Chen Ling's wrist, and gently rubbed the blood-stained golden bracelet.

Chen Ling didn't dodge; he just looked quietly at where the girl's eyes were. After a long silence, he sang softly:

"'When the twilight falls in the darkest of eras,'"

"'I will promise you the morning glow and the blue sky.'"

Hearing the last two lines of the song, the girl's figure paused slightly.

The corners of her mouth curled up, as if she were smiling... then she lifted her flowing skirt with both hands and bowed deeply to Chen Ling, as if in gratitude, as if in farewell.

Then, she stepped forward gently, and a breeze like a gentle palm brushed Chen Ling's cheek and vanished without a trace...

Bang—!!

The moment the last wisp of the soul wind dissipated, the fourth wall around Chen Ling, which had long been teetering, finally let out a crisp explosion and completely collapsed into the void!

In that instant, long-lost emotions surged into Chen Ling's mind like a tidal wave!

In a trance, he saw the desperate and broken people in the war, he saw the fire rain of anger pouring down like the apocalypse, he saw people returning to the Red Dust without hesitation, he saw people fighting in a sea of blood, he saw people fighting bloody battles with the flags of their ancestors... Everything he had once failed to understand, everything he had once watched with cold eyes, returned with the surging of the soul wind.

Those emotions were like a flood after a dam collapsed, overlapping and crashing into Chen Ling's mind...

When he came back to his senses, he was already covered in tears.

The breeze slowly stopped...

Two million suffering souls had finally returned to heaven and earth.

The blood-colored lightning no longer flashed, and the alchemy array between the clouds had also disappeared. Beneath the dead, silent dark clouds, only a bright red opera robe stood alone.

But the next moment, the wind rolled and the clouds surged!!

The pressure of an Eighth-Order descended like a mountain range, carrying monstrous anger and killing intent, accompanied by a blood-colored thunderbolt that crashed into the void in front of Chen Ling!

Brand's eyes were full of bloodshot veins. He clenched his fists, and his gaze toward Chen Ling was one that wished he could swallow him alive!!

"You... are you looking for death???"