Chapter 128
Chapter 128: The Sword in Wind and Snow
Rong Shu sent a message: “Senior Brother, I ran into a problem…”
She forwarded the formation issue she had encountered to Lin Dao and described in detail the carved array patterns.
After that, Rong Shu left the spot.
Although she was responsible for this sector, she would occasionally cross the boundary to take a look at other areas.
Nearby sectors had also been assigned Qi Refining Stage demonic cultivators to keep watch, like eyes hidden in the dark, quietly observing everything within the city.
Rong Shu felt a faint premonition rising in her chest.
The demonic cultivators were likely about to make their move.
She did not know, however, exactly how they intended to strike.
Even so, she had to leave herself a way out.
If she could learn the timing of the demonic cultivators’ action and leave Cloud Link City in advance, she should be able to avoid disaster.
But that carried its own risk. Whether righteous sect or demonic cultivator, if either side later noticed that an ordinary disciple or an ordinary demonic cultivator had slipped away early, would they start to suspect her?
Of course, the best case would be that the righteous sects had already noticed the demonic cultivators’ quiet stirrings and had made preparations ahead of time.
[I need to find time to notify Cheng Bu Fan.]
[When the time comes, Cheng Bu Fan will likely report directly to Peak Master Cheng.]
In the Northern Cold Lands.
On a snowfield where wind and snow tangled, several streaks of blood, bright as red plum blossoms, stained the white drifts.
Overhead, thunder rumbled in waves.
Silhouettes of black-clad assassins kept dropping from above like dumplings; once they hit the ground, they stopped moving.
The wind and snow remorselessly covered their faces.
“Boom.”
With the final peal of thunder, a black figure was nailed into the snow by a gleaming sword.
The black-clad assassin spat blood in great mouthfuls, pupils dilating as he glared at the white-robed man who descended from the sky.
The white-robed man landed beside him and, after a cool glance at the writhing assassin on the ground, spoke in an indifferent tone: “Are you going to talk or not?”
The black-clad assassin bared his teeth as blood spilled from the corners of his mouth, then laughed hoarsely: “Since you want to find our Ancestor and throw your life away, how could I not oblige! Hahaha…”
His laughter cut off.
The white-robed man had stepped on his head and pressed it into the snow.
Humiliation like he had never known crept over the assassin, yet he could do nothing.
This man had wiped out several Golden Core and even Nascent Soul cultivators by himself.
He was like a keen immortal sword that cut straight through all before it; no one could stand in his way.
Just as the assassin braced himself for the mysterious white-robed man to question him again, the latter fell silent.
The assassin strained to turn his neck, then saw the man who had worn frost on his face a moment ago now stripped of outward coldness, a Nine Palace Mirror in hand as if replying to someone’s message.
The assassin could not make sense of it.
What was he doing?
Lin Dao neither knew nor cared what a dying man was thinking.
He was reading the message Rong Shu had sent.
As he finished going through her formation notes, his expression gradually grew solemn.
[The little girl is rather bold.]
Thinking of the treasures he had given her, he felt a little more at ease.
He lowered his gaze to the black-clad assassin at his feet and said in a voice as clear and chill as snowmelt: “Speak.”
Finally acknowledged, the assassin’s pent-up frustration eased a fraction.
“The Ancestor is in the Peach Blossom Grove; if you have the ability, go seek the Ancestor there. Plenty wish to meet him; some cannot even find the grove’s edge. You…”
Having obtained what he wanted, Lin Dao had no interest in the man’s drivel. He raised his hand and summoned thunderclouds.
“Heavily stained with sin, hands reeking of blood, shrouded in clinging resentful souls: now receive the Ninefold Heavenly Thunder Judgment. Regardless of life or death, from this moment your ledger of guilt is cleared.”
At his words, the thunderclouds responded.
Not more, not less, nine clouds gathered and brewed.
The black-clad assassin lifted his head with difficulty to stare at the black mass above. Though he was a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator who had endured two Lightning Tribulations, a chill still crept from those clouds into his limbs and bones and into his five viscera and six bowels; despair and terror surged up at once.
“No… I have no sin!”
“They are ants! They deserved to be my stepping stones! They all deserved to die!!”
He suddenly went mad, as if seeing something unspeakably terrifying, flailing at the empty air before him.
Nine bolts of heavenly thunder fell.
The sword pinned in his chest thrummed twice and leaped into the air.
The nine bolts struck the hilt one after another, coursed along the bright blade, gathered at the point, then crashed down upon the assassin who could no longer move.
Under the absolute pressure of heavenly thunder, body and soul were annihilated; even the Nascent Soul within him could not escape.
When the thunderclouds dispersed, Lin Dao flicked his hand and the Snow Sword flew obediently back into its sheath.
He did not linger, but pressed forward.
Traveling on, he took out the Nine Palace Mirror and replied to Rong Shu:
“This is a trapping formation. Once it is set, to break it by force you need cultivation two major realms higher than the one who activated it.”
“Otherwise, once activated it can only persist for ten hour, about twenty hours. When that time passes, the formation will collapse on its own.”
A few seconds after he sent the two messages, Rong Shu’s reply arrived:
“Senior Brother, if the demonic cultivators have a Divine Transformation Stage cultivator activate this formation, then there is probably no righteous cultivator within Cloud Link City who can break it, and everyone will be captured like turtles in a jar.”
“Senior Brother, what should I do? Should I run early? Or report to the sect ahead of time and have them destroy the formation first?”
Lin Dao’s gaze rested on the words run early for several seconds, and he could not help but smile.
[This little junior sister is not the rigid sort. She can bend and stretch; that makes her more agreeable than taciturn Gu Chen. When the time comes… she should get along with Zi An.]
“You can inform the sect, but you must keep yourself safe.”
In her earlier message, Rong Shu had also explained to Lin Dao that she was borrowing the identity of a demonic cultivator to gather intelligence within the Soul Severing Sect.
“You have found a Formation Disc, haven’t you?”
“Follow my instructions and alter that Formation Disc a little. It will not affect the operation of the whole array, but at that point a flaw will appear. You will be able to leave the formation’s range from there without breaking it.”
After sending the message, Lin Dao lifted his eyes to the distant white sky.
All at once, a faint Peach Blossom Grove seemed to bloom on the horizon.
His eyes narrowed.
An androgynous voice came from every direction at once: “An uninvited guest from afar, hacking and slaying at another’s doorstep is not very courteous, is it?”
Lin Dao did not answer. The Snow Sword at his waist flew free again and hung high in the air.
The blade shivered; streams of sword qi surged out like a torrent and swept across the four quarters.
The falling snow was abruptly scoured from the air.
For a brief moment, heaven and earth seemed to stall.
The peach-blossom illusion on the horizon faltered, then began to crack apart piece by piece.
“Playing at ghosts.”
Lin Dao gave a soft scoff, stepped forward a few paces and rose to hover in the sky.
With a beckon he gripped the hovering Snow Sword.
His gaze swept in a slow circle and finally settled in one direction.
The next instant, he became a streak of sword light and vanished.
Heaven’s Evolution Sect.
Inner Peaks.
Shi Ji Cai had barely returned to the front of her cave residence when she saw a figure waiting outside.
Seeing her come back, the man approached in delight and asked: “Shi Ji Cai, where have you been these days?”
Shi Ji Cai shook her head slightly, unwilling to elaborate: “It’s nothing.”
The male disciple, also at mid Golden Core, was named Wu Yuan, one of the few companions in the sect with whom Shi Ji Cai could exchange a few words.
She opened the cave’s protective array, and the two went inside.
In the courtyard, Wu Yuan glanced at the several demonic beasts kept in iron cages and asked in puzzlement: “Why have you taken to raising these demonic beasts lately, and so many at once?”
Shi Ji Cai answered evenly: “I felt like it for a while, that’s all.”
Wu Yuan gave the beasts another look, disapproval in his eyes: “If you want to develop as a beast tamer, why not look for spirit beasts with high aptitude and pure bloodlines? Just one look tells me these beasts’ bloodlines are a muddle.”
“It’s fine. I am only trying it out and have not truly made up my mind.”
She offered a brief explanation, then shifted the topic: “What did you come for?”
Wu Yuan sighed, patting her shoulder as he said: “I know you lost to Zhong Jue by a single move and missed the sect grand competition, but if you could not go, you could not go. There will be many chances in the future.”
At the name Zhong Jue, a barely noticeable shadow flickered through Shi Ji Cai’s eyes.
She replied, her tone stiff: “I know. I stopped caring about that long ago.”
“Really?” Wu Yuan asked, a little doubtful.
“Naturally.”
“Good.”
Seeing her nod, he finally relaxed a little.
The sect’s selection had ended more than a month ago. At first, he had not dared bring it up around Shi Ji Cai.
Only after waiting a month did he venture a tentative mention.
Mainly, she had been secretive lately, out early and back late. Knowing how stubborn she could be, Wu Yuan worried she would get stuck in a dead end without quite meaning to.
After all, he knew how long she had prepared for the grand competition.
“You were only short on cultivation resources last time, and your realm did not quite keep up. Otherwise, you would certainly have beaten Zhong Jue.”
After a few words of comfort, he shared the latest news he had heard: “I heard a secret realm that has not appeared in a thousand years in the Scorching Fire Wasteland has begun to stir. It might manifest in the next year or two.”
“When the time comes, we can go train inside. If we seize an opportunity, perhaps we can break through to late Golden Core.”
Shi Ji Cai drew a slight smile and nodded: “Mm, we can.”
Wu Yuan switched topics: “By the way, what have you been busy with lately? Sometimes when I want to find you for a mission, I cannot find you.”
Before she could answer, he guessed aloud with a grin: “You have not hidden yourself away for a secret seclusion again, have you?”
Wu Yuan knew her temperament well.
Whenever she lost a fight, she would bottle up her frustration and train like mad in private, aiming to make a breakthrough as quickly as possible so she could defeat the person who had beaten her and wash away the shame.
Shi Ji Cai’s gaze slid to the demonic beasts in the courtyard, her eyes flickering as she said: “Lately… I have learned some new arts.”
At that, Wu Yuan’s interest rose, and he rubbed his hands together as he said: “Oh? Really? Let me see.”
Shi Ji Cai’s brows relaxed: “Since you want to have a look, I naturally have no reason to refuse.”
“From the way you look, your confidence is high. Come on then.”
They had sparred many times in private and were very familiar with each other’s techniques and fighting styles.
Wu Yuan had thought that even if he lost to Shi Ji Cai, he could at least last a while.
But when they truly crossed hands, he felt a pressure he had never felt before.
Moreover, the new arts and moves she used were ones he had never seen or encountered.
Even if he had not learned every common technique in the sect, over the years he had seen other Sect Elders and disciples display them.
Yet in his memory there was nothing quite like what Shi Ji Cai was using now.
By the end, he felt more and more strained.
Seeing that he was about to lose, Wu Yuan quickly waved his hands and said: “Enough, enough, I cannot beat you.”
Hearing this, Shi Ji Cai stopped at once.
“What have you been cultivating? It feels like your realm has not advanced, yet your strength is several points higher than before.”
Shi Ji Cai did not answer directly but asked instead: “If I, as I am now, were to fight Zhong Jue again, who would win?”
Thinking she still minded the loss, Wu Yuan clapped her shoulder and laughed: “Eighty percent you would.”
“Only eighty percent…” she murmured, the words so soft they scarcely left her lips.
Wu Yuan did not catch it and spoke on, full of enthusiasm: “By the way, I accepted a mission recently. Want to come with me?”
Shi Ji Cai nodded: “Yes.”
“Great. I will go to the Task Pavilion and take it now.”
Wu Yuan left in a hurry.
Left alone in the courtyard, Shi Ji Cai lowered her head to study her own hands; for a moment, a ruthless light flashed in her eyes.
[Not enough…]
[At just this level, even beating a Wu Yuan still takes this much effort.]
Thinking so, she looked toward the caged demonic beasts again, her gaze deepening.