Ambushed from behind so suddenly by Cui Ze, Cui Wancheng knew something was amiss—a powerful enemy had to be lurking in wait nearby.
Even while dealing with Cui Ze, he had held back thirty percent of his strength, yet his Scarlet Yang Mirror still failed to reveal any sign of the foe.
The shantytown was crowded with impoverished commoners, but their life auras were far too feeble.
Only when Cui Ze, burned to a skeleton, unleashed Yin Thunder that shook Cui Wancheng to his very soul did he realize just how dire his predicament was.
The Yin Thunder Art was a secret transmission of the Arctic Sect; not even the other six Daoist sects possessed it.
If any heterodox or demonic cultivator dared to unleash Yin Thunder, they would be struck dead by the lightning themselves first.
At this perilous juncture, Cui Wancheng instead grew remarkably calm. Having weathered countless storms throughout his life, he knew that panic in moments like this would only hasten his demise.
If his opponent were truly stronger than him, they would have struck directly; instead, they had manipulated Cui Ze with a bizarre puppet to ambush him, clearly lacking the confidence to kill him in an open clash.
And using the Yin Thunder Art... could it be Zhou Wuji of the Lower Court? The man had risen to prominence out of nowhere, so it stood to reason that he might possess such a secret treasure!
The thought flashed across Cui Wancheng's mind, but he had no time to dwell on it.
Grasping the Scarlet Yang Mirror, he forcefully visualized the Great Bright Heavenly King. He had refined and nurtured this magic implement for nearly thirty years, and it had long since become his natal implement.
Through day and night of visualization and refinement, the dharma idol of the Great Bright Heavenly King was already imprinted in the mirror as solidly as physical substance.
Even though his spirit was shaken by the Yin Thunder, with a single shift of his spiritual sense, the dharma idol of the Great Bright Heavenly King manifested within the Scarlet Yang Mirror: a tall, imposing man composed of blazing white light.
Like the Great Dark Heavenly Mother, the Great Bright Heavenly King's facial features could not be clearly discerned; one could only faintly make out a tall figure clad in a long robe, emanating divine light that formed a colossal halo around him like a blazing sun.
The moment Cui Wancheng linked with the dharma idol of the Great Bright Heavenly King, he instantly suppressed all disturbances stirred up by the Yin Thunder, and under the idol's blessing, his spiritual sense surged by more than double.
The true qi he had previously depleted was also reconsolidated through the dharma idol.
In the blink of an eye, Cui Wancheng was restored to near peak condition through his natal Scarlet Yang Mirror.
The flames shielding his body burned with even greater vigor.
The surging burst of fire set the surrounding walls and clutter ablaze, reducing them to roaring flames.
Suddenly, a wall of flames burst apart as a dazzling white rainbow streaked across the night sky, striking directly toward Cui Wancheng.
Through the Scarlet Yang Mirror, Cui Wancheng caught Zhou Wuji's reflection; though Zhou Wuji wore a bamboo hat and coarse hemp robes, concealing his figure and appearance, Cui Wancheng could see the formidable power of that dazzling White Rainbow Sword.
With barely a dozen paces between them, Cui Wancheng knew he could not evade in time, so he hastily turned and unleashed the Scarlet Yang Great Hand Seal.
The hand seal condensed of crimson flame stood fully a zhang tall, its might multiplied under the blessing of the Great Bright Heavenly King's dharma idol.
Yet the swift-slashing white rainbow pierced right through the giant crimson palm, plunging straight toward Cui Wancheng.
The sword rainbow was so fierce and domineering that Cui Wancheng's heart tightened. He had no choice but to raise the Scarlet Yang Mirror and project the dharma idol of the Great Bright Heavenly King outward.
Overflowing divine light condensed into a halo around the tall figure, the boundless radiance illuminating the surroundings as bright as day.
Struck by the divine light as he drove his sword forward, Zhou Wuji was forced to close his eyes, his hearing, smell, and other senses drowned out by the radiance.
Yet having cultivated both the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture and the Northern Dipper Tianshu Yin Thunder to perfection, how profound was his foundation!
Though the dharma idol condensed divine light into a dharma domain, it could not disrupt Zhou Wuji's Heart Mirror, nor could it shake his precise perception of space.
Seeing the dharma idol reflected on his Heart Mirror, Zhou Wuji did not retreat but advanced instead, unleashing the Sunset Sword.
The light of the White Rainbow Sword transformed into a blazing sword wheel that cleaved straight down, and the Great Bright Heavenly King's dharma idol, radiant as a blazing sun, split apart under the strike.
Cui Wancheng, concealed behind the idol, had no choice but to raise his Scarlet Yang Mirror, condensing light into a mirror of radiance that separated him from Zhou Wuji.
Zhou Wuji saw his own reflection in the mirror of light, yet without hesitation he raised his sword and struck again. The blazing sword wheel swept across, shattering the mirror of light and his reflection along with it.
With the light mirror gone, a ruthless look surfaced on Cui Wancheng's gaunt face. Forming hand seals with both hands, he unleashed a crimson wheel of light—his most formidable secret art, the Yin-Yang Twin Wheels.
Zhou Wuji raised the White Rainbow Sword to unleash the blazing sword wheel once more, but as it fell, it executed an exquisite shift, splitting into two blazing sword wheels, one in front and one behind.
The divided sword wheels were like the blazing sun shining upon a river, one illusory and one real, yet both equally dazzling and intense, mirroring each other so that illusion and reality were impossible to tell apart.
The front sword wheel annihilated the crimson wheel of light, while the rear sword wheel slashed into the empty air several zhang away.
The sword wheel left a brilliant, flawless sword scar hanging in the air. Blood sprayed violently along the seam, and Cui Wancheng, severed into two halves along the strike, crashed to the ground...
Cui Wancheng's cultivation was profound, and even with such grievous wounds he had not yet perished. Staring at Zhou Wuji in bitter indignation, he asked, "Who... are you?"
Zhou Wuji had neither the time nor the inclination to chat with Cui Wancheng. He thrust his sword through Cui Wancheng's head, putting an end to the man's agony and confusion, as well as his grandiose dreams of turning heaven and earth upside down.
He briefly searched Cui Wancheng's corpse, finding a coin pouch, a medicine pouch, a crude booklet, and various other odds and ends, the most useful of which was naturally the Scarlet Yang Mirror.
Pressed for time, Zhou Wuji stowed the items away, then flicked his finger to send out a spark of azure flame, instantly reducing Cui Wancheng into a plume of azure fire.
As for Cui Ze, who had been burned to a skeleton, Zhou Wuji used the Tianji Profound Yang Sword light to dissolve him as well.
He then drew out the Soul-Calling Banner and used its inherent yin qi to disperse the traces of supreme yang sword qi left behind by the White Rainbow Sword.
Having finished, Zhou Wuji turned and left.
By the time the alerted onlookers from all around rushed over, all they could see were the blazing walls and debris.
Shouts and clamor erupted as people carried wooden buckets and washbasins, scrambling to pour water and quickly bringing the fire under control.
Seeing the flames extinguished from a distance, Zhou Wuji breathed a sigh of relief as well.
He had deliberately chosen a relatively open spot for this battle, and the Scarlet Yang spells Cui Wancheng unleashed were so domineering that the walls and debris were incinerated clean almost immediately, preventing the fire from spreading further.
Opening the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, he found both Cui Ze and Cui Wancheng recorded upon its pages.
Cui Ze's destiny pattern was three taels two qian, while Cui Wancheng's was five taels two qian.
Without the slightest hesitation this time, Zhou Wuji directly converted the five taels two qian into primordial profound spirit and applied it to the Tianji Sword.
Purple light unfurled, and Zhou Wuji immersed himself within it, diligently practicing the Tianji Sword day and night.
By the time the purple light faded, Zhou Wuji's Tianji Sword had reached perfection.
The Tianji Sword harbored the transformations of water, fire, yin, and yang; leaving the sword forms aside for the moment, its very shifts in dharmic power were an orthodox method of the Arctic Sect.
Reaching perfection in the Tianji Sword allowed the yin-yang astral power to cleanse his nine acupoints, rendering them lucid and stable and once more strengthening their foundation.
His total amount of true qi had not increased, yet it had become increasingly pure.
The same amount of true qi now wielded about ten percent greater power.
While ten percent might not seem like much, at his current level it was an enormous improvement.
The most direct boost, however, was to his spiritual sense. Through repeated tempering in the course of cultivating the orthodox method, his total spiritual sense increased by ten percent, reaching six hundred.
Based on his observations of several Rank Five cultivators, Cui Wancheng's spiritual sense was only around the level of five hundred, perhaps not even quite that.
The spiritual sense levels of Zhihe and Zhiyuan were undoubtedly well above five hundred.
For a cultivator, improving spiritual sense was the most difficult of all, requiring day and night of respiring true qi to nourish the spirit with qi.
Only through such painstaking tempering and honing could spiritual sense slowly grow bit by bit.
A ten-percent increase in his spiritual sense saved him at least three to five years of cultivation.
If true qi was viewed as operational energy, spiritual sense was the computational core. Enhancing spiritual sense was akin to boosting computing power, storage capacity, and error-correction capability, allowing one to better withstand external disruption.
With the primordial profound spirit elevating the Tianji Sword to perfection, in a mere instant every aspect of his ability saw a tremendous leap. Taken all together, his combat strength had increased by more than twenty percent compared to moments ago.
With his current cultivation, he would need only ten moves to dispatch Cui Wancheng in a direct clash, without needing the Heavenly Puppet at all.
Now, his weakest asset had become the Xiaoxiang Sword instead.
The Xiaoxiang Sword boasted exquisite variations, and its sword intent could certainly be considered brilliant, yet it could only be paired with Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot true qi; it lacked its own method of circulating true qi, making it fall far short in power.
Now that Zhou Wuji's cultivation had reached such a stage, the Xiaoxiang Sword had become a clear bottleneck.
Just like that sword strike which slew Cui Wancheng moments ago: the variations in sword intent belonged to the Xiaoxiang Sword, but the true sword qi was the Tianji Profound Yang Sword.
Using the Xiaoxiang Sword's sword intent to drive the Tianji Profound Yang Sword actually constrained the latter's true power.
However, because his Tianji Sword was incomplete, he had no choice but to borrow the framework of the Xiaoxiang Sword.
Fortunately, with the Tianji Sword reaching perfection, its sword qi could integrate more deeply into the Xiaoxiang Sword, indirectly raising the upper limit of the Xiaoxiang Sword as well.
Cui Wancheng was, after all, a Daoist cultivator whose techniques were thoroughly countered by Zhou Wuji's own.
Moreover, by using the Heavenly Puppet for a sneak attack, Zhou Wuji had forced Cui Wancheng to unleash everything at once, robbing him of any leeway to adapt.
Zhang Banshan was different. The man was a martial artist, and even though he was merely Rank Six, he was seasoned in combat.
Furthermore, a martial artist's vigorous vitality and blood naturally countered spells.
Most importantly, Zhou Wuji could not use the White Rainbow Sword directly against him. In killing Cui Wancheng, he could use whatever means he pleased, as neither the government, the Lower Court, nor the Zhang family cared whether Cui Wancheng lived or died.
Though the preceding battle seemed complicated, it had actually taken less than ten breaths of time.
By the time the residents living nearby were jolted awake from their slumber, the fight was already over.
The Scarlet Yang secret art unleashed by Cui Wancheng had also obscured the blazing sword light of the White Rainbow Sword, allowing Zhou Wuji to clean up all traces of the battle so that no one would know what had truly occurred...
If Zhang Banshan and Zhang Yunfeng were to suddenly vanish, no matter how cleanly he wiped away the evidence, people would still suspect him.
He still had to go to the Upper Court, the main court, and even the Celestial Master Mansion. Shouldering the suspicion of assassinating an official of the Pacification Office would be severing his own future prospects.
Another reason he had upgraded the Tianji Sword was that the Tianji Profound Yin Sword was remarkably similar to profound yin true qi.
Though the Heavenly Ghost Sect was a heterodox sect, its members were still cultivators.
The profound yin true qi of the Profound Yin Reincarnation Scripture likely originated from an orthodox Daoist profound yin secret art.
It was merely because they worshiped different divine lords and used different rituals that the same profound yin true qi underwent different variations.
The Tianji Sword's profound yin true qi drew upon Tianji astral power, dividing yin and yang to transform them into shifts of water and fire.
The Heavenly Ghost Sect's profound yin true qi, on the other hand, attuned profound yin with yin spirits, allowing one to refine and control them.
Nearly all techniques of the Heavenly Ghost Sect were rooted in the foundation of profound yin true qi.
Having cultivated the Tianji Sword to perfection, Zhou Wuji had naturally mastered every variation of the Tianji Profound Yin Sword.
When he tested using Tianji Profound Yin sword qi to activate the Soul-Calling Banner, the Rank Six ghost soldier within was indeed brought under his control once he condensed the Profound Yin Reincarnation Seal.
The Rank Six ghost soldier had stayed inside the Soul-Calling Banner for days without essence qi to nourish it, let alone fresh blood and flesh to consume. Wisps of black smoke drifted from its body, entirely devoid of the iron-hard invulnerability typical of a ghost soldier.
Yet Zhou Wuji felt it was more than enough!
With his enhanced spiritual sense combined with the profound yin true qi converted from the Tianji Profound Yin Sword, he could merge the Heavenly Puppet into the ghost soldier and forcibly elevate its combat strength.
Of course, that depended on whether Zhang Banshan and his nephew dared to come!
The battle between him and Cui Wancheng had created quite a commotion, the flashing divine light illuminating the night sky.
If Zhang Banshan and Zhang Yunfeng were indoors, they might have missed it, but if they were outside, they would definitely have seen the phenomenon.
One was a martial expert and the other an Iron Clothes Guard Hundred-household Officer, and having just met with Cui Wancheng, how could they sit idly by when an incident occurred?
Given how pressed for time they were, the two likely would not go looking for reinforcements either.
Zhou Wuji was in no hurry about it either. Since the Tianji Profound Yin Sword could operate the Soul-Calling Banner, waiting a while before striking again would make no difference...
Zhang Banshan and Zhang Yunfeng had indeed seen the white light surging into the heavens. Not knowing what had happened, both worried that Cui Wancheng was stirring up trouble.
Though they had met Cui Wancheng only once, they had long heard that this Grand Libationer specialized in Scarlet Yang secret arts, which were dazzling as the sun and blazing as fire whenever he struck, thoroughly overbearing.
Since it involved Cui Wancheng, they had to ascertain the situation before they could know how to respond.
After a brief discussion, the two hurried toward the southern part of the city together.
Zhang Banshan could circulate true qi, so while his pace was swift, he moved as light as a swallow. Zhang Yunfeng fell far short by comparison; he had to rely entirely on the power of his muscles and bones, each step thudding loudly against the ground.
"Third Uncle, if demonic sects are fighting among themselves, what should we do?" Zhang Yunfeng asked in a low voice.
"No matter what demon cultivators they are, we disperse them first. We cannot let them make trouble in the city," Zhang Banshan replied.
"What I fear is that things will blow up and draw the Commandant over. If Cui Wancheng falls into the Commandant's hands, that would be truly disastrous..."
He cared nothing for the lives of ordinary citizens, but feared the trouble Cui Wancheng might bring.
Relying on his memory, Zhang Banshan turned into an alley entrance when suddenly a dark shadow flickered, and a wave of sinister, bone-chilling cold struck straight toward him.
"Something's wrong!" How swift were Zhang Banshan's reflexes—he recognized in a glance that it was a ghost soldier.
Rather than alarmed, Zhang Banshan grew incensed. Even a mere Rank Six ghost soldier dared to ambush him!
He immediately surged the true qi in his dantian sea of qi while drawing the four-foot goose-feather saber from his lower back with a reverse grip, slashing violently toward the ghost soldier.
He had been a Rank Six martial artist for over a decade, cultivating the Eight Extremes Sect's secretly transmitted orthodox art, the Baji Hunyuan true qi.
As the true qi circulated, it further invigorated the power of the muscles, blood, and vitality throughout his body. His vitality, blood, and true qi surged and erupted like flames, while his swift-cleaving saber was like a thunderbolt streaking across the sky, unleashing divine might capable of cleaving through anything in its path...
Chapter 134