Li Xuanling was dead.
The torrential rain continued to pour, washing away and diluting the blood that flowed in every direction. Crows cried out sorrowfully in the deluge. The plaque of Zhenhui Daoist Temple lay shattered into three pieces on the ground, strewn haphazardly across the flagstones.
Fahui knelt on the ground, leaning forward. His physique, sculpted by the washing rain, appeared lithe and powerful like a tiger. Gripping Li Xuanling, he breathed heavily just three inches away from him. The golden talismans on his palms lit up one by one, while Li Xuanling beneath him had already ceased all movement.
"Whew..."
Fahui exhaled deeply, channeling his secret art. Golden light shimmered in his eyes as he prepared to devour Li Xuanling's destiny.
"The ninth life... the ninth life... a Maha of nine lives."
With Fahui's inhalation, Li Xuanling's destiny and cultivation began to erupt outward. Yet the Xuanzhu talisman seed nestled within Li Xuanling's sea of qi acupoint was domineering beyond measure. It was already preparing to draw away Xuanling's destiny and cultivation to wander off into the void, utterly unwilling to relinquish them to him.
The Xuanzhu talisman seed immediately swept up Li Xuanling's cultivation and destiny to depart. Fahui was merely the reincarnation of a Maha and naturally could not contend against it; though he continued to cast his technique, he was on the verge of ending up empty-handed.
"Not good!"
Fortunately, Lu Jiangxian had been watching closely all along. From ten thousand li away, he lightly pinched his fingers, suppressing the talisman seed's movement. Vibrating with a low hum, the seed dispersed the cultivation and destiny and slipped away alone into the void.
Failing to extract any destiny under the watchful eyes of multiple Purple Mansion masters would have been a glaring, catastrophic flaw. Lu Jiangxian hurriedly directed the Xuanzhu talisman seed to release the destiny and cultivation, casually erasing every memory regarding the magical mirror from Li Xuanling's mind just in case, while the seed's true essence swiftly retreated into the mirror.
"Damn it..."
The talisman seed he had nurtured for decades was now lost without a trace. Lu Jiangxian cursed under his breath. Although a Qi Refinement level talisman seed was of little use to him nowadays, it was still a minor loss. He thought to himself:
Take his Qi Refinement cultivation if you must, but as for Li Tongya... don't even dream of it!
Back at the temple, Fahui cast his art and shouted aloud. Streams of white silk-like mist surged from the void, refreshing and pleasant, drifting like smoke and mist as they poured into his nose and mouth. Swallowing a mouthful, he felt a sweet spring welling beneath his tongue, and heat surged through all four of his limbs.
"This Venerable One has attained the Dharma!"
Brilliant halo after halo of colorful light suddenly emerged behind his head, and the bronze sigils on his skin grew ever deeper and sharper. His eyes shone dazzlingly bright, like two luminous pearls in the dim, dreary curtain of rain.
Plop.
As Fahui rose on the wind and released his grip, Li Xuanling dropped heavily back to the ground with a thud. His two eyes stared wide and round, fixed lifelessly on the sky, slowly reflecting the silhouette of a grey-robed figure that grew larger and larger before swiftly landing before the temple.
Splash...
Ordinary grey cloth shoes stepped into the puddles. The faint-red rainwater promptly parted, yielding just enough ground for a single foot. His dark grey robes billowed gently in the wind as Li Tongya came to a halt.
"Ling'er..."
With multiple Purple Mansion masters making their moves, and Lu Jiangxian subtly guiding matters from ten thousand li away, their mutual compromises and restraints had resulted in Li Tongya arriving just in time—just in time for the father to watch his eldest son perish before his very eyes.
Li Tongya's grizzled beard drifted gently in the air, his expression dazed. His right hand rested on the hilt of his sword, and the rainwater beneath his feet leaped ceaselessly, climbing upward along his robes.
"Whale-Dragon? You arrived quite quickly."
Fahui fixed his golden eyes upon him. Feeling an itch in his throat, he could not help but cough violently until heaven and earth seemed to spin. Sinking onto one knee, he laughed while coughing, and with a wet splatter, spat out two clean, sharp white teeth.
The moment the two teeth touched the ground, their color darkened rapidly into deep gold. Their forms swiftly elongated and transformed into two patterned short staves that slammed into the flagstones with a boom, cracking open two massive craters.
"Hahahahaha!"
Fahui picked up the two patterned staves, wiped the blood from them, and held one in each hand, laughing:
"I say, why look so aggrieved? Was his death at my hands not brought about by your own doing?"
Li Tongya remained silent. The raging rainwater beside him had already condensed into two thrashing, bared-fanged pale-green serpent-dragons. The old man silently stared at the monk before him. Fahui neither dodged nor hid, meeting his gaze squarely.
"You knew I wanted to devour you, and you knew just as well that I would use your clansmen to draw you out."
Fury flared in Fahui's golden eyes. The patterns on the two staves lit up bit by bit as he chanted in Sanskrit:
"You simply did not know which one I would use to lure you... So you deliberately sent Li Xuanling north, sacrificing your own flesh and blood... Yet it was also fated by destiny that I would devour him and break through to Master. For that, I should thank you!"
Fahui peered closely at Li Tongya. Seeing a fleeting glimpse of rage and remorse flash across the old man's face, he immediately dispelled the slight doubts in his heart and smiled:
"I know not where you learned of this to arrive so swiftly. Fortunately, I prepared well in my previous life and set up divine abilities to hinder you, preventing you from disrupting my attainment in this life.
"You are daring indeed. Knowing full well you were targeted by a Maha, you still attempted to use your own son as bait to draw me out. Yet you were ensnared by my divine ability and delayed by a mere step. The regret in your heart right now must be beyond words!"
As Fahui merged ever more tightly with the Wrathful Mahasattva, the golden radiance in his eyes blazed in every direction. He intended to speak further to stall for time, but a streak of white light suddenly flared across the mountains.
Li Tongya drew his sword.
The blue-white Green Ruler Sword flashed from its scabbard, unleashing a torrential wave of white sword light. Broad as a ship's sail, it whistled forward, illuminating the entire vicinity in pure white. Shattered statues, ruined temple walls, and the rainwater upon the stone slabs were all engulfed in that blinding radiance.
"Good!"
Fahui roared in fury. Brandishing both short staves, he lunged forward, the golden patterns across his body sparkling brilliantly as they wound intricately along his physique. A dense golden aura erupted, crashing head-on against the white light that filled heaven and earth.
Yet that white sword light was extraordinarily nimble, expanding and contracting at will. Feinting a strike, it darted beneath him, weaved erratically around his upper arm, and descended lightly.
Clang!
The Moon Crescent Sword Scripture was already at its fiercest in its opening stance, and executed through the Green Ruler Sword, golden light flared brilliantly for an instant as Fahui's left arm was sheared cleanly off. Raising an eyebrow, he chuckled:
"So it is sword origin... Good!"
Even as he spoke, Fahui's remaining right hand hurriedly reached out to catch the falling left arm. But in a sudden flash before his eyes, three white streamers of light shot forth, undulating as they darted toward his heart, the space between his brows, and his lower abdomen.
Squelch...!
Fahui had only just broken through to Master. Faced with Li Tongya executing the Yueque sword origin through the Green Ruler Sword, where each beam of sword light possessed its own spiritual awareness, how could he possibly contend? Pierced through by the Threefold Moonstream, clean, gaping holes were punched through his heart, forehead, and lower abdomen from front to back.
"Strike!"
Before Fahui's body could even touch the ground, sword origin crashed over him like a collapsing mountain and a raging tsunami. Cleaving like a blade through melons and vegetables, it chopped him into scattered fragments across the ground in a matter of breaths.
"Li Tongya."
For a moment, pale flesh covered the entire ruins. Only half of Fahui's face remained, landing squarely atop an overturned clay idol. Its vermilion lips parted and closed, laughing:
"Since I have inherited Li Xuanling's destiny, there is something I must ask you."
Li Tongya's expression did not waver. The longsword in his hand gleamed with a crystalline, translucent blue-white radiance. The severed limbs scattered across the ground showed neither blood nor entrails; like sticky dough, they sprouted tiny hands and feet, scurrying about and adhering to one another. The mouth resting between the clay idol's hands continued to cry out:
"Why? When Jianixi drove eastward back then, it was I who rescued Li Jingtian! It was I who brought her deep into enemy lines, maneuvering among the Shanyue, toiling as a slave and a beast of burden! It was I who brought her back out, who preserved her chastity and kept my own life so as not to become leverage against the family..."
That half of a face squirmed restlessly, its red mouth opening and snapping shut to reveal gleaming, sharp white teeth as it let out wails of grief:
"In wits, in what way was I inferior to Li Xuanxuan? In capability, I was superior to him by leagues! In talent and cultivation, Li Xuanxuan couldn't hold a candle to me! Why?!"
The mouth snapped open and shut. It unleashed no divine ability or technique, nor did it cast any hex or sorcery. Yet it caused Li Tongya's previously unyielding expression to crumble like an avalanching snow mountain.
"Father! Why was it him who was Patriarch for twenty-eight years?! Why was it me who had to marry the enemy's daughter, live in obscurity, and obediently go to die?!"
Chapter 298