Chapter 60: Ma Yu’s Madness

"No! Restore her... bring Xiaowei back!"

Ma Yu's entire body collapsed to the ground, limp and powerless, as he desperately urged the Wish Jade to restore Xu Wei to her former appearance.

But memories clung to his heart like a nightmare, impossible to dispel.

The pile of mangled flesh on the ground was pulled and twisted by his commands and memories alike.

At times, it formed Xu Wei's face and part of her torso, writhing in agony within the bloody pulp, moaning as she called Ma Yu's name.

At others, it convulsed and distorted in midair, replaying the scene of her fall into the cavern, her viscera and brains splattering in every direction.

After several attempts, not only did Xu Wei fail to take shape, but the ground, the coffin, even Ma Yu's face and body, were all splattered with blood and innards.

As the stench of blood thickened, Ma Yu's madness deepened, and a shadowy aura began to cling to him.

From the crevice behind the boulder, Bai Xian struggled to crawl out.

She watched the grotesque spectacle atop the altar, muttering under her breath.

"So it really is like this..."

Just as she had guessed, the Wish Jade did indeed contain a certain power, allowing one's heart's desires to manifest, to create anything one wished for, even to resurrect the dead.

But the real problem lay in the phrase "heart's desires."

Unlike the "wish come true" of ancient myths, which only fulfilled a limited number of explicit wishes, this power materialized every thought in the possessor's mind.

But the human mind teems with a thousand fancies; its thoughts, wild and unpredictable, are never limited to simple wishes.

Sometimes, one daydreams strange things, or recalls memories that are shameful or too painful to revisit.

And the Wish Jade, it seemed, did not distinguish between uncontrollable mental activity and what the possessor truly sought; it could only make every thought concrete.

When Ma Yu wanted a rifle and a boulder, it produced them to resolve the crisis before him.

When he wished to resurrect his beloved, it revived Xu Wei, fulfilling his desire.

But when Bai Xian's words brought back the horrific image of Xu Wei's death, the Wish Jade faithfully manifested that "dream" as well.

The resurrected Xu Wei became a pile of mangled flesh, and until Ma Yu could completely forget that memory, that was all she would ever be.

From this, it could be deduced that in the ancient kingdom, those who possessed the jade must have, at some point, considered whether the gold, food, beauties they created might not also become filth, yellow earth, or vengeful ghosts...

As for the monkeys—

It was clear the ancients discovered the flaw in the jade and tried to tame monkeys, the animals most akin to humans, in an attempt to control the jade indirectly.

But judging from the monkey that nearly climbed out of the coffin, the ancients had miscalculated.

In the end, the monkeys received grand burials, while every remaining human was sacrificed and buried beneath this pyramid-like altar.

"No! You're not Xu Wei. You're not my Xiaowei! You're just rotten meat by the roadside. Make her disappear... let it die!"

As Ma Yu grew ever more unhinged, a massive boulder appeared out of thin air and crashed down on the pile of flesh.

In an instant, the anguished screams were cut short.

This exposed yet another flaw of the Wish Jade: it could create, but not erase.

"Resurrect, my love... No, no, I can't just bring Xiaowei back..."

Ma Yu seemed to realize the problem with the Wish Jade.

He paced the altar clutching the jade, one hand constantly tearing at his hair.

"When my mind wanders, Xiaowei turns strange. I need to find someone who knows everything about Xiaowei, but won't focus attention on her, and hasn't seen her after her death..."

At this, Ma Yu paused, a figure rising in his thoughts.

"Professor Guan!"

Professor Guan was Ma Yu and Xu Wei's archaeology teacher, deeply familiar with her appearance and character.

He hadn't witnessed Xiaowei's death, making him the perfect candidate.

As long as he used the Wish Jade to bring Xiaowei back...

"O jade, O jade, take me to Guan Xingbang."

The Wish Jade shone brilliantly, and a stone pillar rose beneath Ma Yu's feet, carrying him swiftly toward the entrance of the underground tomb.

...

"Wind stilled, clouds ceased, sun and moon without light; the breath of all things enters my grasp. With the word 'Still,' time and space are frozen; with the Shadow Lock incantation, the body held fast, not released until my command."

"Still!"

Beneath the altar, Bai Xian quickly traced the immobilization spell into her palm.

The moment Ma Yu swept overhead, she struck decisively with an open palm.

Instantly, golden light converged from all directions, dyeing Ma Yu's body gold.

A spell character for "Still" appeared above his head.

Bang!

The stone pillar conjured by the Wish Jade vanished, and Ma Yu's body crashed from five or six meters high, landing heavily on the ground.

The immobilization spell shattered; Ma Yu curled up on the ground, writhing and howling in pain.

"Each of you... all of you are trying to stop me from bringing Xiaowei back? You deserve to die. You all deserve to die!"

"Kill them! Kill them all!"

The Wish Jade flashed once more.

Accompanied by a chilling, hair-raising clatter, it was as if countless evil spirits were struggling within the massive altar.

Bang!

A stone brick fell away, and the long-rotted human bones within slowly stood up.

Each corpse wore a grotesque monkey mask forced over its face, but in this atmosphere, Bai Xian felt no urge to laugh.

"Ma Yu, that jade isn't the Wish Jade—it's the Abyssal Jade, drawing out the demons of the heart. You mustn't leave this tomb alive!"

The spear in Bai Xian's hand shimmered with starlight as she unleashed dazzling spear techniques.

Dragging the stupefied Meng Dejun in one hand, she raced across the altar, dodging the attacking corpses and shattering the reanimated skeletons one by one.

But there were simply too many corpses buried beneath the altar.

For every one she smashed, ten more, then a hundred, pushed aside the bricks and slowly crawled out.

Seeing Ma Yu stagger toward the tunnel entrance, Bai Xian gritted her teeth.

"These corpses are unarmed; they can't kill you quickly."

Meng Dejun, dangling from her hand, uttered a confused "Huh?" before he could grasp her meaning.

He felt a tremendous force, and Bai Xian hurled him far away.

With a muffled crash, he crushed at least five or six corpses beneath him.

When he looked back, he saw—

Bai Xian, who had tossed him without mercy, swept her pale hand through the air, and a yellow talisman inscribed with red runes appeared between her fingers.

Without any visible motion, the talisman ignited in a smokeless flame.

A brilliant golden light enveloped Bai Xian entirely.

The "Golden Light Talisman," the highest grade of Daoist talisman, each one drawn and consecrated by a master from Dragon and Tiger Mountain, then distributed to the Suppression Office.

Only Exorcist Captains and monster hunters from the Demon Suppression Tower could exchange contribution points for them.

Yaowen Eagle, a monster hunter from Bronze Bell, had spent all his points to acquire five such talismans.

Four were used against the Thousand-Legged Gu in Jiangzhou County.

The final one was gifted to his friend, Bai Xian.

...

Cloaked in golden light, Bai Xian bent her knees and then, with all her strength, shot forward.

Her slender body became an arrow, streaking toward Ma Yu at the mouth of the passage.

Countless skeletal hands clawed at her, but any that touched the golden light instantly disintegrated into fragments.

Ma Yu turned in panic.

The Wish Jade blazed, and another boulder plummeted toward Bai Xian.

By now, Bai Xian was within five steps of Ma Yu.

Her spear spun, red light gleaming at the triple-edged tip, rapidly coalescing into the shape of a dragon's head.

After three upgrades, "Dragon Emerge" now faintly took on the form of a true dragon.

The boulder was less than half a meter from her.

Bai Xian's gaze was icy, her brows furrowed in concentration.

A flash of cold light struck first, and then—

"Emerge, Dragon!"