The radiance of the shamanic golden talismans flowed over his form, thunder surged beneath Li Chengkun's feet, and an intense golden light rose from behind him. The young man's thoughts were quickly cut short.
"Rumble!"
Having been deceived and nearly losing his quarry's trail, Situ Mo's panic and fury were easy to imagine. The agitation upon his face was no longer a feigned mask, but genuine, somber wrath—like that of a snake catcher who had just been bitten.
The radiance upon this Master of Tangjin Gate flared brilliantly in an instant. Runes manifested layer upon layer across his diamond-patterned golden robes. Taking a stride forward and reaching out to seize him, his speed was worlds apart from before!
A torrential glow of red and purple enveloped Li Chengkun, all the purple lightning channeling straight toward the soles of his feet. His expression bore neither sorrow nor fear, only an icy calm as still as water. Stepping through thin air, he managed after all to stay a step ahead of Situ Mo, narrowly evading the grasp.
Situ Mo showed not the slightest regret. As long as Li Chengkun remained within range of his spiritual sense, nothing unexpected could happen. What had terrified him into a cold sweat was the thought of the youth vanishing without a trace as he had a moment earlier.
The sullen darkness on his face swiftly receded, hardening into ruthless frigidity. A speck of golden light rose from the back of his head, materializing into a gourd white and cold as snow.
'A spell... or a magical weapon?'
Li Chengkun had no time to discern which before a stream of chilling misty radiance gushed from the gourd. Like heavenly illumination breaking through clouds from midair, it shone down upon him.
Situ Mo's own speed was not slow in the least. Closing the distance once more, he pressed the middle joints of his index and middle fingers together on both hands, muttering:
"Receiving the pure color of the West, commanding qi to burgeon..."
Rich in combat experience, Situ Mo chanted an incantation with one hand while simultaneously sending the golden needle and golden blade aloft. First probing the sky to flush out the Chongming Dongxuan Screen, he spotted a shift in dark azure light and indeed forced the protective screen weapon into the open.
As the chilling misty radiance cascaded down toward him, Li Chengkun, already knowing that Situ Mo had crossed the mountains to attack several times under immense pressure and had most likely held back then, conjured thunder to counter the icy light.
To his surprise, the mineral-blue radiance around him rippled as the light of the prayer technique manifested. The diffuse chilling misty glow was deflected as though striking a slippery round stone, scattering harmlessly to either side without requiring him to lift a finger.
This was his first time using such a talisman and he was unfamiliar with it, but it was a welcome surprise. Li Chengkun immediately raised his lightning, only to hear a piercing clash in midair.
"Clang!"
Right above his head, a dark golden ruyi materialized and smashed downward through the sky. Li Chengkun surged with thunder and lightning to deflect it, detonating a blast of white light in midair that rained glittering sparks across the sky.
Alas, Metal was born of Earth yet distinct from Earth, suppressing thunder. The ruyi shattered the lightning with effortless ease and struck the mineral-blue glow shielding his body, instantly ringing out with a crisp snap.
"Crack!"
Knowing that the defensive power of this prayer technique had reached its limit, Li Chengkun could only seize its lingering luminescence to take a few more steps. Forming an incantation hand-seal, he spoke:
"Yang arrives..."
Before his hand-seal was complete, a biting chill surged from behind. The cold fiend of Gengmetal poured in, crashing against the dark black shamanic talisman light on his body. Like receding tides, the pitch-black radiance vanished in the blink of an eye.
The power of Concealment had been shattered by the cold fiend and dispersed!
"Pfft."
Li Chengkun spat a mouthful of blood that drifted up as scorching thunder. His cultivation fell far short of his opponent's, his years of practice could not compare even in the slightest, and his lightning was fundamentally countered, to say nothing of competing in magical arts.
The young man could only endure the agony and drive his thunder forward. Situ Mo's eyelids twitched at the sight; noticing Li Chengkun's stubborn flight eastward, the ferocity on his face deepened:
'Still refusing to give up!'
The gray cable crawled up Situ Mo's sleeve like a venomous viper. Barely allowing Li Chengkun to pull ahead by a single body length, he had already hurled the spirit artifact aloft.
With Li Chengkun's talisman broken, the spirit artifact once again swam into the Great Void, locking onto him from the shadows. The curtain of golden light inscribed with mountains and rivers descended from the sky, sealing off the path to the east.
Hatred welled up fiercely in Situ Mo's chest. Yet watching Li Chengkun trapped within the light curtain like a bird in a cage, a sense of powerlessness actually rose within him. He uttered a low sigh:
"You... you! How utterly foolish! You would throw away your own life? How many people in your Li family are there for me to slaughter?!"
Li Chengkun gripped his spear, his gaze locked tightly onto the man, and said in a heavy voice:
"You are welcome to kill me. If killing me cannot flush him out, killing anyone else will be equally useless. Once your usefulness is spent, let us see who will protect you!"
Situ Mo felt a mouthful of bitter blood pent up in his chest, aching to be spat out yet swallowed back down, his blood boiling. At this point, everything lay plain as day. Li Minggong and the others were bound to rush to his aid, while Ding Weizeng, stripped of the Chongming Dongxuan Screen, would soon fall in defeat, and his own clan members were likewise on their way.
Li Chengkun refused under any circumstances to retreat to the lake. The only option left was to kill him.
Situ Mo, still unwilling to resign himself, pressed:
"Zhaojing has miscalculated. How long can Li Zhouwei possibly stay in hiding? What good does it do for you to die in vain?"
Li Chengkun fell silent. He stared at his pursuer, those striking eyes seemingly hollow of any emotion. He answered:
"Kill me if you will. When my clan's forces arrive, they will kill you all the same."
"Rumble!"
The light curtain of the Shanming Dongyue Cable shook; someone appeared to have arrived nearby. Situ Mo finally abandoned all hope of reasoning. Casting one last glance at Li Chengkun, he said:
"Whether I will live is hard to say, but you must die first."
The golden curtain pressed down from the sky. Situ Mo drew his blade, only to see the silver-armored, black-robed youth spit out a speck of blood-tinged, bright white light. Blood seeped across Li Chengkun's face bit by bit. Situ Mo's eyes brightened, and a couple of chuckles escaped his throat.
He held a deep grudge against the Li family after all; witnessing such a spectacle brought him genuine satisfaction.
Li Chengkun's eyes burst from their sockets, transforming into specks of light amidst the heavens of lightning. Next, a layer of flesh and skin tore away, turning into a slurry of thunder soaked in blood. Suffocating lightning permeated the brilliance as six Thunder Punishment Tokens coalesced into shape, frantically devouring every scrap of magical power across his entire body.
Without hesitation, Situ Mo stepped back. Wrapping all the lightning in the Shanming Dongyue Cable, he hurled it forcefully into the distance, clutching the Violet Palace talisman in his hand as he took flight.
"Rumble!"
No matter how formidable this onslaught of lightning was, when pitted against a bona fide Violet Palace spirit artifact—and one of Earth and Metal virtues at that—it ultimately devolved into a long, muffled boom. The lightning bared its fangs and claws to lunge at Situ Mo, yet was completely imprisoned within the artifact, unable to advance even an inch.
As the brilliance of the Shanming Dongyue Cable faded and all the pale golden light retreated into the sky, Situ Mo raised his brow, taking in everything before him.
To the west were his cultivators from Tangjin Gate; Situ Biao and the others stood ready in tight formation. One or two bore wounds, but none severe, though it was unclear how Ding Weizeng had fared.
On the other side stood a woman in a red dress, holding a hexagonal lantern in her hand. Red and white flames flickered gently within it, and her lovely eyes were brimming with tears. Behind her were presumably the members of the Li clan.
Fight on?
Situ Mo found the answer almost instantaneously.
'The Li family possesses talismans that evade Violet Palace deduction; it would not be hard for Li Zhouwei to slip past the gaze of the Violet Palace. If it were me, I would likewise slip away in secret. Li Chengkun was right: killing everyone here is utterly pointless!'
Situ Mo took a step back immediately. As Situ Biao hurried forward to meet him, the Master of the Situ family drew the purple talisman from his sleeve and pressed it directly into the old man's hands.
"Rumble!"
The thunder in the sky flared abruptly. Even after being heavily suppressed by the Shanming Dongyue Cable, the lightning Li Chengkun had unleashed at the cost of his life still turned heaven and earth stark white. Everyone closed their eyes and fell back, shielding themselves against the blinding glare.
This was precisely why Situ Mo had hurled the spirit artifact away. Seizing the opportunity, he caught the Shanming Dongyue Cable as it shuttled back from the Great Void, retrieved a black brocade pouch from it, and casually thrust the cable into Situ Biao's hands, transmitting his voice in a frigid tone:
"Kill them all! I will go to the lake to hunt down Li Zhouwei!"
"Rumble."
As the glare of thunder subsided, Situ Mo's figure had already vanished into a streak of pale golden light.
Left behind, Situ Biao could only raise the spirit artifact. A barrage of spells was already hurtling through the dying lightning—intertwined flames and golden rings of combined water. Gripping the Violet Palace talisman tightly, the old man felt a creeping sense of unease:
'Why did he thrust this onto me...?'
Yet he had no time to ponder. Seeing Li Chengkun slain before her eyes, Li Minggong had nearly coughed up blood. Tears streaked her cheeks, her fury readily imaginable. The old man could only hold up the Shanming Dongyue Cable in defense.
However, he had never received the sect master's heritage. Though he knew the Shanming Dongyue Cable possessed several divine wonders, he remained ignorant of its vital workings and could do no more than unleash waves of yellow light to ward off the incoming spells.
...
Meanwhile, Situ Mo sped southward for a distance. Once he was out of sight of the battle and surging river waters flowed beneath his feet, he immediately pivoted, heading toward the East Sea.
This was the most viable route to survival he could conceive in that fleeting moment.
Leaving both the Shanming Dongyue Cable and the Violet Palace talisman to Situ Biao ensured he would not be seen as coveting Violet Palace treasures and invite lethal greed. Relying on the cable and the trump-card talisman, Situ Biao could continue fulfilling the Violet Palace's orders, draw attention away, and perhaps even slaughter one or two Li clan members—a far more meaningful role.
As for Situ Mo himself, he had deliberately taken Li Chengkun's storage bag so that Li Ximing would have a way to track him down, allowing Situ Mo to serve as bait on a Violet Palace hook... That way, even if some Violet Palace wanted him dead, other Violet Palaces would intervene to stop them...
As for going to look for Li Zhouwei in the east, that was nothing more than a ploy to pacify Situ Biao and make him a contented scapegoat.
'What a pity about that Chongming Dongxuan Screen. It is truly a fine treasure. But with Li Minggong present, I had no chance to seize it; had she pinned me down, there is no telling how it would have ended...'
Having cast aside even a spirit artifact like the Shanming Dongyue Cable, he certainly would not covet the Chongming Dongxuan Screen. Anxious, terrified, and treading as if on thin ice, he rode the wind onward.
The sky before him slowly dimmed. Situ Mo's heart hung high, aching with anxiety, while his hands and feet turned ice-cold. The entire surface of the river mirrored the setting sun. His gaze swept from south to north, terrified that a Violet Palace might leap out at any moment and shatter him to pieces with a single strike.
He flew for a time. The south was shrouded in gloomy black qi, and he gradually emerged from the Wilderness. The shores on both sides were completely deserted, devoid of even a single passing cultivator. The river was as smooth as a mirror, without even the trace of a demonic beast.
Situ Mo's heart actually calmed bit by bit. Cold sweat drenched his back as the Tangjin Gate Master's mind grew clearer and clearer:
'I succeeded... As the various Violet Palaces fan the flames, their stances will only become clearer and clearer. They are swept along in the conspiracy to murder Li Zhouwei. With every passing hour, their silent thoughts will lean further toward putting Li Zhouwei—and even Li Ximing—to death.'
'After all... even if no one knows, those whom one has wronged are always better off dead sooner rather than later!'
His thoughts grew increasingly guarded, burying everything deep in his mind. Situ Mo understood that he was treading a path to survival. Li Chengkun's blood-soaked, resolute face flickered briefly in his heart before swiftly fading away.
Leaving the Wilderness far behind, Situ Mo alternated between flying through the air and diving beneath the riverbed to mask his tracks. Li Chengkun's black storage bag was clutched in his hand like a life-saving talisman, never once opened.
By this point, little magical power remained in his body. Pursuing his quarry while driving a spirit artifact the entire way had thoroughly exhausted even his spiritual sense. The nerves he had kept taut all day finally began to unwind.
"Splash!"
He burst out from beneath the river, kicking up sprays of water that rained pattering back down onto the surface. The world had reached its darkest hour; the surroundings were astonishingly black, with only the howling wind whistling through the rustling trees.
As the cascading river water settled, the surface resumed its mirror-like calm. Situ Mo's brows dipped, his gaze dropping to the water.
Reflected upon the river was a man clad in golden-white armor. The black robe draped over him billowed backward in the night wind, and a radiant sunlit heavenly brilliance flowed down from his armor, rolling across the surface of the river.
His black hair hung loose. Two arms of dark flame grew from his back, each gripping a dark halberd pointed toward the river on either side. The white-patterned dark armor plate on his left hand was slightly longer, his index and middle fingers pressed together, holding a golden talisman that was slowly transforming into black light within the wind.
Concealment.
The young man's other hand held a slender magical halberd level. A dazzling, magnificent heavenly light surged frantically from the halberd's core, its razor-sharp crescent blade rapidly expanding before Situ Mo's eyes. Faintly, he caught sight of a speck of luminescence rising between the youth's brows—and in the very next instant, an endless sea of white submerged his vision.
"Clang!"
The Dasheng Great Halberd struck his dharma robe like a beam of flowing light with an explosive impact. This top-grade dharma robe of Tangjin Gate let out an overtaxed screech of creaking seams. Situ Mo felt as though his internal organs were engulfed in flames.
"Boom!"
Immediately after, the Shangyao Fuguang smashed into his face like a razor-sharp sword. An explosive roar mingled with splintering crunches echoed through the night sky.
A mouthful of fire scorched from Situ Mo's throat into his lungs, burning so intensely that his entire body convulsed. He was not even marveling at the strength the youth wielded after emerging from seclusion; his entire heart was gripped by utter numbness and dread:
'How is this possible?! How could he appear in this place at this time?!'
'Across this boundless river! How could he intercept me?!'
All of this had happened far too abruptly. Situ Mo had never imagined that a direct descendant of the Violet Palace would appear right before his very face—and the assets that had fueled his arrogance upon the lake, the Violet Palace talisman and the Shanming Dongyue Cable, had all been discarded by him back in Funan!
To make matters worse, the one confronting him face-to-face was a Violet Palace seed like Li Zhouwei!
The golden robe he relied on to save his life finally failed to hold out, dimming in midair the next moment. Brilliant light shone through as two arms raging with dark flames thrust forward from either side. Before the protective barrier of golden talisman light that Situ Mo had just ignited could envelop his entire body, it was seized by those spell-breaking arms, corroded and worn down, unable to close.
"Gasp!"
An arm abruptly locked around his throat. Situ Mo felt the world spin wildly, the stars and moon blurring before his eyes as he was hoisted into midair, meeting those golden eyes.
A pair of golden pupils steeped in hatred, seemingly ready to drip blood.
Chapter 769