Volume 3, Chapter 101 – Brief Lull (Two-in-One)

The rainbow of sword Qi was like a signal. As soon as it rose, the invading demonfolk revealed themselves all at once and lunged for the motorcade outside the alley.

Dozens of black figures surged forward under the lead of a burly man. The lead car had just begun to honk when he gripped his greatsword and cleaved it in half. He then bellowed, slammed his shoulder into the second car and flipped it over, raising his greatsword again to smash down on the vehicles behind.

At the critical moment, a sword hum suddenly cut through the night wind. Kong An descended from midair with his sword, just in time to meet the burly man’s descending greatsword.

“Mm?” At the clash, both men let out a muffled grunt tinged with surprise and confusion. Kong An fell back slightly in midair, while the burly man staggered back three full steps, each step leaving a deep footprint in the ground.

“Demon fiend!” Kong An was shocked by his opponent’s strength, yet even more enraged by the attack itself. “You dare strike at a ranking official, you truly have a death wish!”

“Rather than ask me, Mister Kong, you should ask whether the Yu Emperor sits the throne rightfully.” The burly man answered coldly. He raised his sword again, stamped down, and shot up like a cannonball straight at Kong An in the air.

They traded blows, sword Qi crisscrossing. It was roughly clear that the burly man had the edge in raw power, but Kong An, relying on his superior aerial movement technique, never clashed head-on. He only did his utmost to disrupt the man’s sword paths, even finding room to flick a few extra strikes toward the surrounding demonfolk.

“Ah!”

Puff, puff.

We cannot drag this out like this.

Seeing this, the burly man’s face turned ashen. He understood that tonight’s plan was very likely ruined.

It had been too rushed.

The original idea was to start chaos and draw Kong An away, then find another way to move against that Zhang Xianzhi. He had not expected that extra rainbow of sword Qi.

He could not exactly blame anyone else. Anyone who practiced Sword Dao could feel the terrifying intent contained in that rainbow in that instant. Once someone failed to withstand the pressure and lashed out first, everything that followed would be a chain reaction. He himself had not managed to hold back either, so what face did he have to blame his companions?

Fortunately, it was not absolutely essential to succeed tonight.

The path was loosening. Their Crown Prince would descend in a while yet. Maozhou Prefecture and all of Maozhou were destined to become a trinket in the palm of their Shenwu Immortal Dynasty. He had best keep his useful life, instead of getting into a pointless contest here.

“Retreat.”

With that thought, the burly man lowered his voice and gave the order to the others, and he was the first to ride Kong An’s force and flee the battlefield.

At that moment, a warning flared in his chest. In midair, he forcibly twisted his body, raising his greatsword diagonally in front of his chest.

With a boom, he once again turned into a human cannonball and was smashed straight down. In the spot he had occupied a heartbeat earlier, Xiang Xian’s figure appeared out of thin air.

Swish, swish, swish.

Not just Xiang Xian, either. Patrol inspectors and Shenming disciples from nearby, alerted by the commotion, were all rushing over. One squad was led by Bai Zhuqing and Hu Hu, quickly closing on the central battlefield.

“Grandmaster.” Bai Zhuqing called out cautiously, “I asked Grandfather. The dojo is fine for now.”

“Good.” Xiang Xian’s eyes never left the burly man who was scrambling back to his feet. She spoke without turning her head. “Did you see that rainbow just now?”

“We heard some noise at least.”

“Then you know the general area. Take people over to have a look, and remember not to be rude.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

No one thought anything strange about this. In their eyes, that rainbow of sword Qi clearly came from a virtuous hidden expert. It had been sent out specifically to alert all the defensive forces in Zhen’nan so they would not be caught off guard by the demonfolk’s opening move.

Bai Zhuqing quickly led her group into the alley, while on the battlefield, the burly man stood up and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

“Are you of the Demon-Immortal Dao or the Yuhua Sect?” Xiang Xian fixed him with a cold stare, unable to stop the killing intent surging in her heart.

Of course she was furious. She had only just secured a new home for the Yuming lineage, and they had chosen to break in while Bai Xiang was away. They had gone straight for the State Governor right from the start. Their plot behind the scenes could hardly be called modest.

There was a difference here. If they were only targeting the dojo, that might have been the court’s doing.

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But coming straight for Zhang Xianzhi, whether their goal was to kill him and paralyze half of Maozhou’s administration, or to control him and issue false decrees, what they were aiming for was the entire territory of Maozhou. Put plainly, that was equivalent to treason.

The court would not stoop to such things. That left only those who had suffered under Bai Xiang’s hand in the past.

The burly man’s lips twitched almost imperceptibly, and his whole body suddenly crumbled into a shell of horny outer skin that shattered and collapsed. Like a damaged mummy, he fell into dust all over the ground.

“Pangolin?” Xiang Xian frowned and flashed into the dust. Her foot found the hole in the ground and she thrust her sword downward.

Buzz.

The entire street shook with that strike. When Guo Rongzhi and Song Ruhua arrived afterward, all they saw in the billowing dust was five twisted sword shadows overlapping one another. The next instant, the ground split open with a tearing sound, leaving behind a deep gash.

Puff, puff.

With a muffled grunt, a spray of dark red blood spurted from deep in the earth at the far end of the gash. A black figure burst out of the ground and fled, his appearance completely changed.

His deathly pallor was gone, replaced by a layer of extremely fine silver-white scales. A pair of somewhat short, thin flood-dragon horns had sprouted on his head, and his backward-bending legs churned desperately as he tried to escape.

It was meaningless.

As the five overlapping sword shadows fell once more, they split apart halfway and came down from five directions, sealing every route of escape for the demon man.

Clang, clang.

He tried to parry with his greatsword. At the second blow, his face changed dramatically. He spat blood, and his chest was carved open from chest to groin in a single slash. Demon blood sprayed as he flew back and crashed into a car by the roadside.

So this was a False Core.

Feeling the smooth, obedient power of her sword Qi, Xiang Xian was quite satisfied.

After switching to the path of qi, she had dissolved the massive demonic power she had cultivated over many years and converted it into this qi-force, though at a lower efficiency.

In terms of quantity, it was far inferior to before, but the quality of this qi-force was terrifying. By her own estimate, even the pre-conversion version of herself would not have been able to withstand that move just now, “Splitting-Light Prison.”

At the same time, Bai Zhuqing had led Hu Hu and the other disciples to Liu Yong’s detached unit.

It was easy to spot. Only his front door stood open, violent sword intent roiling from within. Through the doorway, they could see a man lying in the courtyard, with a thin figure sprawled over him, crying and wailing that “Yong-ge’er, you can’t die.”

This was the place.

Stepping in, Bai Zhuqing first swept her gaze around.

It was just an ordinary resettlement unit, one grade better than the refugee camps.

Most of the walls and floor were intact, with no obvious signs of fierce fighting. Only in the middle of the courtyard lay two sword-shaped “metal plates.”

Near the wall, there seemed to be some blackened object. Bai Zhuqing quickly went over and lifted it with the tip of her sword for a closer look. It was a dark red glove with a rubbery texture.

This material, a glove from a tactical suit?

The cut was perfectly smooth. One whiff of the bloody, meaty stench inside and anyone could tell it belonged to a demon. With no signs of a fight, that meant the demon had been melted into nothing in a single blow right to their face.

Startled, Bai Zhuqing’s expression grew solemn. She cupped her hands and bowed toward the empty air, intoning, “Many thanks, senior, for your aid.”

She waited a while, but there was no response. She bowed again. “This junior, Bai Zhuqing of Shenming Sword Dao, offers her thanks for senior’s grace.”

Still no reaction.

Judging that the other party had probably already gone, Bai Zhuqing turned to look at the two youths surrounded by Hu Hu and the others.

Dongzi had been dragged away, revealing Liu Yong lying on the ground, brows tightly knitted as he lay unconscious.

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“What is going on?” Bai Zhuqing went over to ask Hu Hu.

“There is a strange qi inside him.” Hu Hu frowned as well. “It is similar to demonic power, but not quite the same.”

“He is a mortal?”

“Yes.”

“Any injuries?”

“None.”

How odd.

A chill crept over Bai Zhuqing’s heart. She felt that everything in this courtyard looked uncanny, as if something were hiding in the shadows and staring at her. Her whole body trembled slightly.

She had lived through the earlier demon disaster, though, and forced herself to draw a deep breath. “Take everyone and leave this place first. Stay alert for a demon attack…”

Before she finished speaking, the cement under her feet suddenly shattered. A black figure leapt up from beneath and reached for her throat.

The others clearly reacted a beat slow. Their startled cries came too late to help. That meant there was no one who could protect Bai Zhuqing in the next instant. Whether she survived would depend entirely on herself.

This was the very definition of “a hair’s breadth from death” and “between life and death.” A moment ago she had still been trembling slightly with fear. Now, driven into a corner, her gaze steadied. A fierce, resolute light flared in her eyes.

Got her.

As the black figure’s features came into focus, it was the bespectacled demon who had been setting up instruments on Longchuan Peak earlier.

His appearance was too distinctive. A mechanical pair of “glasses” was driven straight into his eye sockets, a green-dyed mohawk stuck up from his head, and torn clothing constantly shook off dust and earth. Underneath, most of his torso was a mechanical frame.

He had come to check on the situation and had not expected to run into another target.

This girl was called Bai Zhuqing, if he recalled.

According to the information supplied by those people, she was the only result that “Bai Nianchan” had left behind.

She was also the younger sister of that Bai Zhixing and extremely close to her. If he could capture this girl, not only could he use her as inspiration to recreate experiments, he might be able to extract quite a bit of information that could be traded with those people.

The bespectacled demon’s mouth curled in a grin. He was sure this capture was in the bag.

The girl’s face was twisted with ferocity, like she wanted to eat him alive, yet she no longer had time to draw her sword.

He had said it before. Swordsmen were flawed. If they could not even handle a close-range surprise attack like this, how could they possibly be faster than bullets?

The change in the next second made his heart lurch. He only saw the girl open her mouth and shout. Before the words even reached his ears, his vision was swallowed by white mist.

Half his head jolted violently, as if something had pierced straight through it. He barely had time to think about dodging before whatever had pierced him moved even faster, carving a right angle downward through his brain and ripping into most of his body.

Puff, puff.

The remaining lens over his left eye suddenly burst, dark red, oily fluid spraying out of the hole. The next instant, his entire body exploded from within. A mass of flame engulfed Bai Zhuqing and several of the surrounding disciples.

“Senior Sister.”

Hu Hu cried out and charged into the fire and smoke without hesitation. After fumbling around for a while, he finally dragged out Bai Zhuqing, who was coughing nonstop. Her clothes and face were blackened and smeared with soot.

“Cough, cough… There are others.”

Ignoring her own state, Bai Zhuqing joined Hu Hu in going back for the others, hauling out several disciples.

Luckily, even those who had fallen unconscious had only been choked by smoke and stunned by the blast. The worst injury was a metal shard lodged in one disciple’s forehead, not too deep and not fatal.

“Go.”

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With no way to be sure there were no more enemies hiding nearby, Bai Zhuqing had no time to check her own wounds. She led the group back out of the alley at a run and onto the main street, arriving just in time to see Xiang Xian carrying a white-scaled demon man like a butcher carrying a dead dog.

“They are basically cleaned up.”

With a thud, Xiang Xian threw the demon to the ground and looked at the people gathering around, Chen Shi and Lian Feng, as well as Guo Rongzhi, Song Ruhua, and Kong An. She spoke and gave her summary.

“Three at the Core realm, two Divine Fetuses…” She glanced at Kong An. “Your father took care of one more. Counting the one behind that rainbow earlier, three Divine Fetuses in total took action.”

Kong An’s face darkened.

Three Divine Fetuses. That was a force that could wipe out a small country on its own.

These were supposed to be the demon forces on the run.

How did they have this many experts?

He had witnessed Xiang Xian’s moves firsthand, though, and had a solid grasp of how much stronger his old acquaintance had become. He was not worried that Maozhou and Shenming would be in trouble without him and his father.

She had not even shown her true skill yet.

“The demon race is utterly ruthless. They must have a plan to seize Maozhou’s territory.” Guo Rongzhi had been staring at the white-scaled demon from the start. “We should interrogate him and see whether they have any follow-up plans.”

“Heh…”

At that moment, the group heard a low chuckle.

It naturally came from the white-scaled demon. Looking down, they saw that its crocodile and lizard-like protruding jaws had curled into a very human smile. It murmured, “Our defeat today is because I, Wumeng, lack the skill.”

“But do not think you will have it any easier.”

“Once the Crown Prince of our court descends, this place will be turned into a Blood Abyss.”

With that, its body went rigid, and its life force rapidly drained away.

Xiang Xian’s hand was quick. Before the disciples could react, she had already tossed a pill into the demon’s mouth. The pill dissolved and released a surge of powerful plant essence to replenish his life force, in an attempt to drag him back.

She was still too late. The struggle lasted only an instant before it was crushed. The demon’s flesh shriveled rapidly, pits and holes corroding through his scales. In a few breaths, he was burned down to a few remnants, clearly having used some self-annihilating secret art.

Everyone’s expression was grim.

The amount of information in his words was simply too great. No one dared treat it lightly.

“Comb through the entire circuit city again.”

Xiang Xian’s voice was icy as she gave the order.

“We will return and discuss this in two hours.”

……

Elsewhere, in Baco City of the Luohou Kingdom, Bai Xiang was laying out her demands to Aurora.

“Mm…” Aurora fell into thought for a moment.

“There are many ways to break through a signal block, that is true. Unfortunately, most of them are unusable right now.”

Bai Xiang was a little surprised. “Why is that?”

She did not think a signal block was a particularly difficult problem. She had Aurora in her hands, after all. It was obvious that Star Tower Group wanted to use this chance to establish a connection with her. She neither approved nor disapproved. She knew both sides were looking to use each other.

That was exactly the issue. With the capabilities of Starwater Company and Star Tower Group, how could they be helpless before a shielding field?

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Tech giants like these had their own orbital weapons, and the prerequisite for orbital weapons was their own satellites or even orbital stations. With those, routing signals around the shielding field should have been trivial. Why was that impossible now?

“Your timing is unfortunate.” Aurora sighed. “About thirty minutes ago, I exchanged messages with my father. He told me that the stations controlled by the Group ran into some trouble and have temporarily lost contact with the ground headquarters.”

Bai Xiang frowned. “An internal mutiny?”

It would not be divine-vein demons again, would it?

“We are not sure yet. We are doing everything we can to restore communications.” Aurora’s face was equally grave. “It is very likely planned. My father called several rival companies immediately after. In probing them, he found that they seemed to be experiencing the same problem.”

She listed several company names. One of them was Karl Company, the maker of the Demon King mecha and Bai Xiang’s own Demon-Kite battlesuit, Star Tower Group’s sworn enemy.

“And you may not know this yet, but there have been extremely serious weather disasters all over the world in the past forty-eight hours.” she added, clearly worried.

“Everything has happened in the same rhythm, all at once. This is the first time I have seen anything like it.”

Bai Xiang closed her eyes and thought for a while, then asked again, “There really is no way at all to get information through?”

“If I have to say there is something, there is.” Aurora thought about it and answered.

“I still control a few microsatellites. They are actually kinetic weapons used to slam into competitors’ orbital assets. I can redirect them to self-destruct and control their crash sites so they come down in Maozhou, as you described.”

Just as planes had black boxes, satellites had something similar. As long as they could still send commands to the satellites, people on the ground might be able to recover storage modules from the wreckage and extract the desired data by studying them.

“Then let us do that.” Bai Xiang nodded.

“Alright.” Aurora agreed, face twisted with pain.

Those were satellites.

Even as her father’s most beloved child, she had only been given a few. This was a very real, very painful loss.

“You have done well.” Noticing her reaction, Bai Xiang added, “If there is a chance in the future, I would not mind a deeper partnership with Star Tower Group.”

With those words, it was worth it.

Aurora perked up at once, coughing violently from excitement.

Without hesitation, she began remote operations on the spot, completing all arrangements right in front of Bai Xiang. Only after finishing did she look up to report, “The plan is in motion.”

“Do you have any other orders?”

“Can we send weapons and equipment over?” Bai Xiang was still uneasy.

In her mind, she pictured all kinds of demon beasts invading, then recalled that the federations had mastered orbital drop technology, able to deploy armed forces from orbit to any spot on the globe.

“We cannot.” Aurora shook her head regretfully.

“As long as the stations remain out of contact, there is nothing we can do about that.”

So for now, they could not be relied on.

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes, feeling a deep sense of threat.

Natural disasters, invasions, even extending their influence into orbital space. The enemy’s plan was excessively meticulous.

“Prepare a helicopter for me.” she ordered.

It was time to go find the Meridian-Linking Method.