Chapter 57
Chapter 57: Unhealable
Jiang Yun Jiang steadied her breath and forced the anger down before it could show on her face.
So that was Shao Heng’s game.
Wear Jiang Yun Jiang’s face while using Shao Heng’s own name, then let the offended cultivators investigate. Once they dug into backgrounds, they’d discover the “Shao Heng” behind it was only an outer sect disciple, likely without even a Moon-Inquiry Token.
And since Shao Heng and Jiang Yun Jiang had an old grudge, people would instinctively assume Jiang Yun Jiang had maliciously framed her.
Worse—if Shao Heng had some way to mask her cultivation so cleanly that even Senior Dan Hua couldn’t see through it, then she could insist she was only at early First Realm. The one clearly at mid-stage would be Jiang Yun Jiang. How would anyone tell which was real?
The method wasn’t perfect. It had flaws.
But once suspicion took root, it wouldn’t need perfection.
Jiang Yun Jiang kept her voice soft as she said, “I’ve heard the name Shao Heng too. She’s a disciple who entered the sect at the same time as me. Senior Brother, Senior Sister—perhaps you were deceived by her?”
She didn’t expose Shao Heng’s outer sect status. If these three learned it, they would only grow more doubtful.
Jiang Feng clasped his fists and said, “That Shao Heng set us up to fight yin ghosts and nearly got us killed. We truly hate her.”
“She wore the same face as Junior Sister Jiang, but when I sensed her aura closely, it was clearly different.”
“I cultivate the Geng Metal Seven-Slaying Method that Master passed down to me.”
Jiang Feng’s heart jumped. He turned and barked, “Yu Wen, apologize to Junior Sister Jiang at once!”
Yu Wen’s expression twisted, but a disciple who reached mid-stage First Realm in half a year, cultivated a mid-grade method, and had High-Grade Aptitude clearly had an elder backing her.
He forced down his resentment and apologized.
Jiang Yun Jiang’s brows eased. In her usually gentle eyes, a rare cold resolve surfaced. “It’s fine. Since Shao Heng framed me like this, when we return to the sect, we’ll settle accounts with her together.”
—
Meanwhile, the Shao Heng they were talking about sat cross-legged in an underground cave she had carved out with arts.
The last Shattered Moon had turned to dust, its spiritual energy fully refined. Shao Heng’s power surged wildly.
She rose, power rolling—and the Face-Changing Art naturally failed, revealing her true face.
Ao Chuan, curled nearby, asked at once, “Why did you disguise yourself as that human traitor who stole my blood?”
“And why did you use your real name? Once your sect’s disciples compare notes, won’t you drag yourself into it too? Why not disguise yourself as someone else?”
From Shao Heng, it had already learned that the first thief to rush into the white mist and try to steal its dragon blood was the human traitor named Jiang Yun Jiang.
Shao Heng shrugged, unconcerned. “I just wanted to give her trouble. Even if I get a bit of trouble too, I don’t care.”
Against Lu Yao, she had used many of her own artifacts and immortal arts, and in the end she was fortunate enough to kill her.
As for Jiang Feng’s group of three, they never saw her fight at all. And Zhao Qing Tu, who had seen the Thousand-Strike Bow, wasn’t about to shake hands with them and sit down to compare notes.
When Shao Heng returned to the outer sect, she could use Gray Cocoon—enough to fool even Yin Liu—to suppress her power to early First Realm. Then she could deny everything. Who had enough proof to convict her?
But to be honest, Shao Heng also had another thought.
If she never ran into Jiang Yun Jiang in the secret realm, then Jiang Feng’s group of three would be her revenge, and she would make it obvious, telling her plainly, Yes, I did it.
Shao Heng took out the thin silk map. The three nearest Shattered Moon marks were a cave, a high mountain, and a forest.
“Three places I know nothing about,” she murmured. “I can only pick on luck.”
She put the map away, sprang out of the underground cave, and landed on the surface.
With her arts no longer holding it, the earthen cave collapsed at once, leaving a sizeable pit.
Ao Chuan crawled out after her, spat twice, and ended up covered in dirt like a worm. It didn’t dare complain. It only cast a cleaning art and followed.
Shao Heng headed southwest, choosing the forest.
The Azure Emperor could produce death qi, a natural nemesis to Vine Demons, so her safety was more assured.
And the forest was dense and complex. With her cultivation still lacking, if she met someone she couldn’t beat, it would be easier to escape.
She had just finished more than seven days of seclusion. Her mind was sharp, her power had risen to five hundred and four furnaces, and after refining Shattered Moon, the moonlight within her was fuller than ever. When she used Three-Thousand-Li Moon, the escape art felt even more potent.
In only half an hour, she reached the edge of a thick forest.
The unknown trees had gray-brown trunks riddled with holes, packed so close they made one’s skin crawl.
They were huge, averaging over twenty chi tall. Above them, dense canopies tangled together, swallowing the sky. Under moonlight, light and shadow swayed and shifted like water.
Shao Heng extended her divine sense and was surprised. “Such thick wood-element demon qi.”
This was likely Vine Demon and tree demon territory.
“Shattered Moon contains moon essence,” she said, voice low. “It also helps plant demons increase their cultivation. Even if there are Shattered Moons left here, there probably won’t be many. I didn’t think of that earlier.”
“Then do you want to search somewhere else?” Ao Chuan asked.
“No.” Shao Heng shook her head. “I’m here already.”
She disguised herself as a burly man and walked into the forest.
The tree-shaped rune in her qi sea dantian drew on Yellow Sprout power, quickly producing death qi like black fog. It seeped out of her body and wrapped her gray robes like invisible armor, in case a higher-cultivation Vine Demon slipped past her senses and tried to ambush her.
Moonlight filtered through gaps in the canopy and splashed onto the ground, shifting with every breath of wind. It was the perfect place to use Three-Thousand-Li Moon.
Shao Heng slipped through light and shadow. In less than half a quarter hour, she was absurdly lucky and found a Shattered Moon floating in midair.
She dropped the disguise, stopped, and leaned against a tall tree.
With a quiet snort, a moonlight Phantom Body stepped out of her shadow and charged straight toward the Shattered Moon. The moment it came within a meter, a dark green vine shot out like a spear and pierced it clean through.
“How many tricks can a Vine Demon really have?” Shao Heng said, almost amused.
Using Shattered Moon as bait, it wanted to lure cultivators in, surround them, devour them, and steal their blood essence and cultivation.
The pierced Phantom Body scattered into sparks—but then surged forward again, condensing once more as it reached for the Shattered Moon.
Three vines lashed out like whips to block it.
At the same time, the ground rustled. Countless thin vine threads erupted, swarming toward Shao Heng’s real body.
Shao Heng had already drawn her bow. Silver arrows wrapped in death qi whistled out—three in a row—blowing the vines apart and letting the Phantom Body seize the Shattered Moon.
“On your left,” Ao Chuan warned. It had been watching with Dragon Pupil Art and had already found the Vine Demon’s true body.
Shao Heng kicked off the ground and leapt into the air. As she drew, her power condensed into another arrow—and the sun-moon-star force in her body gathered, plating the arrowhead in a brilliant, multicolored sheen.
She needed to test it.
The arrow tore through the air, drove into the Vine Demon’s roots, and detonated.
Wildfire couldn’t burn it all; spring wind would bring it back. Plants were always stubbornly alive. Unless you took its demon core and destroyed its root meridians, plant demons could recover quickly.
The Vine Demon’s shattered roots writhed, trying to knit themselves back together.
But a faint rainbow shimmer clung to the wound. No matter how it drove its demon power, it couldn’t heal even a little.
Shao Heng’s gaze sharpened. “So this power causes wounds that can’t be healed.”
Ao Chuan’s bloodline feared it so deeply it had submitted on instinct—but even it hadn’t known what this force did to living flesh.
“If this is the case…” Shao Heng’s fingers flexed. “Then even a True Dragon body probably can’t resist this unhealable trait.”
She exhaled, almost laughing.
“This is amazing.”