Dark clouds billowed; the struggle had lasted long. Divine abilities clashed and shook the realm, leaving heaven and earth mottled.
The Tianheng Xuansi Cloud was a spiritual treasure capable of shrouding an entire region and turning heaven and earth crimson. Yet it was obstructed by this Great Real Person's divine abilities, unable to encompass the full battlefield. Instead, Jueyin surged up in roiling currents, accompanied by an upwelling of dull white vapors that broke through in several places. Mingled with the radiant splendor of Buddhist soil, patches of gold appeared in the east and swatches of red in the west amidst dark clouds and white vapors, painting the entire firmament in a chaotic clash of colors.
With the emergence of Jueyin qi came furious gales and tempestuous clouds that roiled the world. It was pale yet dark; from the gloom arose cyan vapors that transformed into layer upon layer of clouds beneath the Great Real Person's feet, echoing the censer in his hand like a cascading torrent.
Suspended in midair between Wei Xuanyin's brows was a white pearl, within which fine cracks seemed to spiderweb, bursting with dazzling white light like blades and swords that stabbed down toward the Real Person shrouded in billowing black qi below.
Kuiqi stood amidst the clouds forming hand seals, his dark hair flying wild in the gale. Thick, dark blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, rolling down onto his robes where it turned into a few drifting feathers, instantly shredded by the howling wind.
He had already battled the man before him for quite some time. Divine abilities had clashed and shifted dozens of times, and he had brushed with death more than once. Only by trading grievous injuries for fleeting opportunities had he gained a semblance of a standoff.
One jet-black clone after another peeled away from his body, each taking up a position—some bearing bronze swords, others holding black chains. One by one, they were blasted into black mist by the beams of white brilliance, yet ever more shadowy figures kept emerging.
His lips pale, Kuiqi constantly flickered between the clones. Not a trace of ease showed in his bearing; his entire focus was fixed on his opponent's cuffs.
The Great Real Person wielded his divine abilities with seeming nonchalance, yet a lethal, serpent-like menace constantly emanated from those wide sleeves. Every now and then, it locked onto Kuiqi's true body among the clones. Had his magical arts not been subtle enough to resonate with his divine abilities, enabling him to shift incessantly among the decoys and break the lock, that hidden menace would have struck like a viper darting from its burrow long ago!
The situation was far from promising. The white pearl suspended in midair poured forth an increasing volume of white beams, and the incantations forming in Wei Xuanyin's hands were nearing completion...
'Even though I am also gathering the Wangming Bingfu Light... what he holds is bound to be even more terrifying!'
Wei Xuanyin slightly lowered the two fingers held before his lips. His delicate, almost feminine eyes gazed straight ahead. At last, he drew back his sweeping divine abilities and pinched forth a single fleck of light.
*Dong...*
At the same moment, the luminous white pearl above spun, unleashing an intensely glaring brilliance. Hundreds and thousands of snow-white rays gushed forth, descending densely like a torrential downpour, sweeping away every last shadowy clone in the sky in an instant.
Kuiqi's true body was forced out into the open, exposed amidst the driving deluge of light!
His true body was clearly in dire straits. His black hair resembled fine feathers, each strand distinct. The dark clouds about him took the shape of flocking owls wheeling through the air. Within his wide sleeves, great rooks cawed in lamentation, vying to surge outward. Each had a broad beak and black plumage, ghostly and macabre, as though they had long roosted under the eaves of his robes, letting out eerie, mournful cries like unnatural spirits.
That single fleck of white light floated gently amidst the snowy-white storm. Its hue was somber, cloaked in cyan and harboring silver, light as a goose feather, yet it arrived in the blink of an eye, right before his face.
There was no retreat!
Kuiqi finally halted his incantations. With one hand, he drew his bronze sword; with the other, he pressed two fingers against the blade. His pupils dilated, and he gritted his teeth:
'Wangming Bingfu Light!'
Within the dense white radiance, a speck of pitch-black finally emerged, swaying and drifting like duckweed in a storm. But his adversary's cultivation was far superior, casting spells with vastly greater speed. How could a hastily mounted defense hold?
*Clang!*
Beneath the white brilliance, the bronze sword rapidly lost its luster, revealing its plain bronze color. Immediately after, that tiny fleck of light pressed down upon the blade, dragging Kuiqi and sword alike downward. The Dahe Kui Bronze Sword bent slightly into an arc, and the two fingers pressed against the blade quickly melted away, dissipating into billowing black qi.
Kuiqi showed no change of expression. Circulating his body divine ability, the five talismans affixed to his body exploded in unison, releasing thick black smoke. He stepped back and vanished into black qi.
As he retreated, another "Kuiqi" astonishingly remained where he stood, channeling the full measure of his magic power to block the descending white light.
*Rumble!*
Dense black qi surged to the heavens. Kuiqi spat a mouthful of blood, his dharma body riddled with cracks. He whipped his head around: across the plain, the pink light was threatening to flood the sky, and even Tuoba Ci was vomiting blood with a severed arm, xuanhuang qi rising around him.
Yet no sooner had Kuiqi escaped than Wei Xuanyin vanished from the sky.
The white-robed man had long departed, leaving only that luminous white sphere suspended among the clouds, radiating sheets of fierce white brilliance. Wei Xuanyin held the title of State Preceptor of the State of Zhao not merely because he wielded four Jueyin divine abilities, but because he was a master of divination, which was how he had appeared here so unexpectedly in the first place!
The moment Kuiqi shattered the five talismans and slipped away, the destiny divine ability Xiao Zhu Li that had hovered over him finally dissipated. Circulating his divine ability, the white-robed Great Real Person suddenly materialized at his flank, wide sleeves flaring open.
*Rumble!*
Yet it was the Great Void that stirred first. Wei Xuanyin's sleeve trembled slightly, as if an invisible long hook had snagged his wrist and jerked it upward. A speck of white light flashed and faded, and the horizon toward which his sleeve had been aimed dissolved into an imperceptible, dusky-white void, drained of spiritual energy and echoing with destructive winds.
Kuiqi narrowly escaped catastrophe. Yet his arm had been brushed by the Jueyin light; caught in the aftershock, the flesh melted away to expose stark white bone, upon which dense clusters of finger-sized white-jade shrews clung, gnawing with frantic frenzy.
"Oh?"
Wei Xuanyin lifted his head slightly, a look of doubt crossing his face. Beside him, two sheer ridges closed in as clouds dispersed and mists cleared. Beneath his feet, a stream flowed across, as though he stood upon a solitary skiff drifting into a narrow gorge, flanked by stacked crags and gloomy cliffs devoid of light.
His willowy brows arched in surprise.
"Ju Ling Zhong!"
Sure enough, amidst the hazy clouds stood an old man holding a white-jade fishing rod. With a gentle upward lift, he locked Wei Xuanyin's sleeve from across the distance, snaring its wonders in place.
It was Xiao Chuting!
"You have stepped in as well..."
Wei Xuanyin seemed well acquainted with him. His brows even lifted with a hint of delight. Channeling his divine ability, he instantly carried his voice into the clouds where Xiao Chuting stood, speaking with keen amusement:
"Now that you have cultivated Kanshui... Daoist Xiao had best recognize whose threshold you belong to!"
The old man in midair appeared somewhat helpless, gently shaking his head. Wei Xuanyin did not believe his expression in the slightest. His eyes scrutinized the elder, seemingly turning thoughts over in his mind...
'They have sown discord for years, and Chunyi Dao and Mount Jingyi already share a feud of blood and sea. Xuanyi cannot and dare not come... With Chijiao Island stirring, Chunyi Dao cannot move either...'
'I recall there are several rogue Violet Palace cultivators in Jiangbei who would not dare take a side in such an affair. Yuandao has spent years severing ties and would certainly not hand a pretext to the Peacock at a time like this...'
'And we still have him... The pieces on the board are already complete... Let us see how the board turns!'
Wei Xuanyin made no move. After just that single exchange of glances, the long thread drifting through the Great Void snapped taut, humming under tremendous strain. Xiao Chuting looked at him calmly and replied softly via divine ability transmission:
"The Xiao clan once received assistance from Xiukui. Though this old man was residing at the North Sea, I had no choice but to break seclusion and come to repay this debt of gratitude. Forgive my offense!"
*Whoosh!*
Drifting dark clouds instantly blanketed the surrounding sky. Kuiqi had already shuttled away, pitch-black divine ability power enveloping his entire body to suppress the Jueyin wound on his forearm, feeling battered, weak, and wracked with pain.
Yet barely having escaped, he felt no joy. Instead, he halted dead in his tracks, freezing rigidly in midair.
Not far from him, a Daoist robed in white-and-yellow feather robes patterned with circular designs stood in the sky, carrying a dharma sword upon his back. In the gloomy sky, he appeared exceptionally luminous.
He had willowy eyes and an air of cultured refinement. One hand extended gently forward, carrying a twelve-cornered, glazed-bodied, brass-bottomed lamp that shed a soft, pale-yellow light.
Dark-red blood dripped from the corners of Kuiqi's mouth. After a brief flicker of astonishment, the Great Xiukui Abbey Real Person's eyes hardened into ice.
'Changxiaozi!'
Before him stood none other than the Great Real Person who had been missing for years, the one who had contested Hengzhu Dao for decades—Changxiao!
Across the mist and clouds, Wei Xuanyin and Xiao Chuting locked eyes, neither showing the faintest hint of surprise. Yet the Luoxia Plain plunged into sudden silence; even the several Mohes were momentarily stunned.
"Real Person Changxiao?!"
The silence lasted only a heartbeat before a faint, airy sound rang out from the Great Void:
*Snap!*
It sounded like a snapping string, seeming at once as distant as the horizon and as close as one's ear. The white-jade fishing rod in Xiao Chuting's hand instantly recoiled, emitting a faint white glow. Beneath the clouds, the white-robed Great Real Person smiled brilliantly, and his bulging, tightly bound sleeve finally burst open!
In that single snap of fingers, divine abilities and magic power across the field bloomed in unison. Endless dusky-white light gushed from Wei Xuanyin's sleeve, bridging heaven and earth above and meeting the ridges below. The precipitous crags hemming in the solitary skiff ceased their contraction, forced apart and scattered by the soaring white light.
"Changxiao!"
At this moment, none was more enraged and wrathful than Hengli. His eyes swept across, reflecting the lantern-bearing figure in the sky. His immediate impulse was to abandon the Mohe dripping with golden blood in his grasp and step into the Great Void to duel Changxiao!
Yet the Great Real Person in yellow-and-white feather robes showed no expression. The lantern in his hand cast forth ten thousand fathoms of radiance. Behind his head, a jade plate as pristine as a mirror and etched with osmanthus patterns emerged from concealment, turning from subtle obscurity into radiant manifestation.
Having remained hidden for so long, how could he miss his mark!
This strike was like heaven and earth compared to when he had pursued Li Ximing to test the attitudes of Luoxia and the dragon kind. In an instant, heaven and earth lost their color as thunder boomed. The shifting hues of the twelve-cornered, glazed-bodied, brass-bottomed lamp fell across Kuiqi's face, reflecting glittering golden light in his dark pupils.
The Dahe Kui Bronze Sword was raised once more, struggling to ward off the golden light. Screeches of clashing and grinding metal rang out as black qi scattered, falling like a sheet of gray rain across the sky.
Thunder rumbled furiously in the air, and Ning Wan's frigid voice suddenly rang across the sky:
"Yan Jianxiao! How dare you disregard the grace of granting land and nurturing your Dao!"
As the voice echoed in the air, Real Person Changxiao tilted his head ever so slightly, as if his original name had grown foreign to him. The corners of his mouth curled into a faint smile:
'Is this not precisely to repay the Chi clan's favor?'
...
Mount Xiaoshi.
Billowing dust rose as the long-lingering purple qi finally dispersed. The ground was strewn with ruins, golden rays crisscrossing the devastation. A colossal golden body lay collapsed upon the earth, emitting deep hums. Plumes of cyan and blue flames washed over the golden form, leaving it utterly listless.
Xuwang recalled his golden body, transforming into a monk with fat jowls and large ears. Riding a gust of magical wind, he descended toward the ground. His sect brothers on the earth were still wailing:
"Help us! We don't have precious treasures to protect our bodies like you do—that woman's fire is truly venomous!"
Xuwang casually tossed down the wooden fish in his hand. It emitted pulses of white light in midair, helping his fellows purge the flames from their bodies. Meanwhile, he turned his head and smiled at the Real Person nearby:
"Fellow Daoist Helian! Many thanks for your assistance. Were it not for you, who knows how long it would have taken to drive that woman away!"
The man before him held a long-shafted zhaodao that was neither purely a spear nor a halberd. Handsome of feature, clad in snow-white feather robes, with eighteen glazed pearls adorning his waist, he cut an imposing figure. It was none other than Helian Wumeng!
Yet this Real Person of the Helian clan and general of the State of Tiefu wore a flat, almost disgusted expression. His handsome eyes flashed with cold light as he said frigidly:
"Save your fawning chatter. Whatever else she may be, Tinglan belongs to the Three Mysteries lineage, an orthodox Daoist school. What are you lot supposed to be? If not for the State Preceptor's orders, it wouldn't matter to me in the least if every last one of you died!"
The Helian clan had once been on good terms with the Kongwu Path, but they had had a falling-out long ago due to unforeseen events. Their relations with the Kongwu Path were far from amicable now, and prior to today could even have been called hostile. Naturally, he had no pleasant words for them; they had merely happened to receive orders together.
Moreover, as orthodox demon cultivators of the Heavenly Embryo Demonic Path, the Helian clan considered themselves superior. Anchored in the Great Void was their anomalous palace, and they measured themselves against the highest rank of the Purple-Gold Demonic Path—the Taiyang lineage level. They viewed blood-drinking Purple-Gold demon cultivators as walking a laughable, aberrant path. Harboring such innate pride, how could he deign to look favorably upon this monk?
Slighted by the rebuke, the monk showed no anger, merely chuckling:
"Fellow Daoist Helian has quite the fiery temper!"
Helian Wumeng was renowned across both Mobei and Monan. As the Helian clan's prodigy, he was highly valued by Helian Wujiang. Both his cultivation and his divine abilities were vastly superior to the other Helian clan Violet Palace cultivator left guarding the Hetao region, and higher than Xuwang's as well. Naturally, the monk dared not take offense. He leaned closer and whispered:
"May I ask what orders the General has received? Are you to join us in attacking Mount Dayuan Guangyin?"
Though Mount Tangdao was protected by a grand formation, a hastily constructed Violet Palace array naturally could not cover the entire mountain range. Numerous smaller and larger formations dotted the land, making it an undeniable piece of prime meat. Someone among the five Lianmin had to hold this ground. Xuwang had a stronger background, so he was naturally entitled to a share of the spoils. Yet he was cautious by nature and hoped to rope in Helian Wumeng as a dependable pillar of strength.
Helian Wumeng looked at him coldly and sneered mockingly:
"Foolish monk, Mount Dayuan Guangyin is as good as ours sooner or later! What good things could possibly be in a hastily established outpost? At most a formation plate, and do you think that would fall into your hands or mine? My lord has already advanced from Mount Cai. One from the west, one from the east, we will march south together, bypass Mount Dayuan Guangyin, and rendezvous at the Three Rivers! The defenseless Violet Palace strongholds along the river—those are where the real spoils lie!"
Xuwang nodded repeatedly, smiling without arguing. In truth, neither was right or wrong. He had come to break the enemy, conquer in the conflict between north and south and the strife between Daoism and Buddhism, and expand the Buddhist soil; his aims were inherently different from those of a demon cultivator pursuing material resources. He merely chuckled:
"I would only remind Fellow Daoist not to forget that Tinglan and her allies have merely retreated..."
Helian Wumeng sneered.
"Will Tinglan retreat all the way into Ziyan Blessed Land, or go reinforce the formation at Mount Dayuan Guangyin? Do you think I'd be foolish enough to attack Ziyan Blessed Land? Take your pack of useless fools and get lost!"
With that, he rose upon the wind and soared over the mountain. Xuwang was left standing with a beaming smile, but as his smile faded, his expression turned chilly.
'A bunch of Northern Di barbarians... Were it not for the Emperor of Qi's favors, they'd still be herding horses in some forgotten corner of the wilderness. How dare he strut so haughtily before our Seven Aspects...'
It was common for northern Violet Palace cultivators to look down upon Lianmin. These Real Persons often prided themselves on considering only Mohes as their equals. Those as blunt as Helian Wumeng were hardly rare. Xuwang could only curse inwardly before turning to bark at his fellows:
"What are you still fiddling around for? The swift take all, and the slow get nothing! If we can intercept a retreating, routed Violet Palace cultivator, our gains will be even greater!"
His status was clearly superior, and his query carried the distinct weight of a command. Two of the remaining four immediately rose into the air and fell in behind him, saying:
"Junior Brother, please give the word!"
Chapter 903