Volume 3, Chapter 119 – Divine Sound

Dusk had only just been born, yet Zhen’nan Circuit at this moment felt like the prologue written in blood.

The sky clearly had not gone fully dark, but the streets were empty. Carts and trailers had been abandoned carelessly by the roadside. When a gust of noisy wind swept through an intersection and pushed its way down the narrow street, one only had to look to the next corner to glimpse several bloodstained corpses. Without exception, they all wore the disciple robes of the Shenming Sword Dao, nailed to walls or lampposts with long spikes and cruel implements, the intent to intimidate painfully obvious.

Many people had actually seen the killers at work, but they did not dare speak, even less did they dare go out. One after another they shrank back into their homes, occasionally lifting their heads toward the direction of the Shenming Sword Dao’s mountain gate, hazily remembering that those demon-humans had gone there in the end.

After several more divisions of the hour, some with sticky fingers began to roam the streets. Some only wanted to seize the chaos to flee, while others were merely following their nature, hoping to recreate the plundering they had once done when Chilong Circuit fell.

Most people, though, were numb. Aside from the small number wondering how to save their lives at a time like this, the rest did no more than light a few sticks of incense, bow before their statues, and pray for protection from distant immortals and gods.

“Buddha bless us… Bodhisattva bless us…”

“The Shenming Sword Dao are good people. Old Lord, please keep them safe.”

“Ancestors, watch over Bai Xiang and everyone.”

“Dao Lord, grant your protection…”

“Immortals, grant your protection…”

Their incense and prayers gathered in the void, yet could not stop the flames slowly rising over that mountain.

Bai Zhuqing was leading the disciples in a chaotic melee against the demon-humans under the female Daoist’s command. At first the situation clearly favored the enemy, but once a long sword flashing with silver light came stabbing in, the tide began to turn.

“Senior Han!” The girl looked in delight at the figure who followed the sword in.

She knew this woman. Rumor called her the “old monster” of the Red Dust Sword Dao, named Han Yinshuang. It seemed she had sensed something was wrong and come to help.

“This is not a battle you should be part of.” With a flick of her sleeve, Han Yinshuang swatted aside all the slashing qi aimed at the girl. Silver sword in hand, she clashed with the female Daoist and still had the leisure to lecture her. “Take as many others as you can and fall back. You should be pulling your defenses in right now.”

“I know you.” The female Daoist ground her teeth and glared at Han Yinshuang. “You are not young anymore. Do you not want to know how to walk the path ahead? Do you not wish for eternal life?”

“There is no such thing as eternal life.” Han Yinshuang remained unmoved. “All hope for immortality finally collapses into despair. Rather than walking the wrong road again, I would sooner keep this form until I die.”

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“Hopelessly stubborn.” The female Daoist roared. “You have no idea what methods the Immortal Dynasty has.”

“The Shenwu Immortal Dynasty, is it.” Han Yinshuang caught her blade and, bracing against the tremor in the woman’s shoulders, looked straight into her eyes, a faint laugh leaving her lips.

“You make it sound so fine. Have you obtained that method of immortality yourself?”

The female Daoist’s breathing stalled. At once her gaze turned even more vicious.

“Seems not.” Amusement flickered in Han Yinshuang’s eyes. “All that high-sounding talk, yet in the end you are nothing more than a stray dog.”

“Whore.” The female Daoist completely snapped. “I am Lian Wanyun, Dao Lord of the Rebirth Dao. Remember this. It is the name of the one who is about to kill you.”

Her attacks grew more ferocious, but Han Yinshuang still met them with ease.

If not for the fact that the female Daoist had so many disciples around to assist her, flinging out dirty tricks to divert Han Yinshuang’s attention now and then, she might not have been able to hold her even this long.

Yet they could not go on like this.

Han Yinshuang’s face remained relaxed, but she knew her own limits.

Her “god of war” performance came from following Xiang Xian’s path and switching to the path of qi.

Unlike Xiang Xian, however, she had not yet fully converted her cultivation. She could just barely suppress this female Daoist, but as time went on and the qi-force in her qi sea dwindled, she would clearly no longer be able to hold out.

She could only stall.

Her gaze slid aside. Watching the enemy troops pouring endlessly out of the white-mist mountain gate, Han Yinshuang grew more and more anxious.

Xiang Xian, or Kong Tianbao.

Hurry up and finish off your opponents so one of you can come and help…

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“Ha… ha…”

In a long corridor, Bai Zhuqing was leading the disciples in a run toward Listening-to-Rain Tower.

Along the way, twisted and warped… even things that did not qualify as ordinary demon beasts, aberrant monsters, kept leaping up from behind courtyard walls. The group cut them down together, but every attack cost time.

At times, disciples possessed by divine-vein demons also tried to draw close in disguise. Bai Zhuqing’s innate sensitivities alone allowed her to pick them out. She spat out her sword pellet and cut them down in a flash, and only then did they live long enough to reach this place.

“They climbed up along the cliffs,” Lian Feng said in a cold voice. “These filthy things… why was there no sign of them when they entered the city?”

“The enemy must have some way to shift Illusory Realms.” Chen Jing’s voice sounded from the rear, soft but steady. “When I was watching over the tower, I checked some records. Some Illusory Realms can be moved. They must have jumped in from another void.”

Boom.

A thunderous crash. A grotesquely fat demon-human, four meters tall and with a waist nearly three meters around, burst through the wall and tumbled forward, gouging a deep trench in the ground. He then grabbed a huge greatsword and hauled himself up, laughing wildly.

“They say the sky-traversing arts of the Jingzhu Sword Dao are unmatched. Seeing it today, it really is impressive.”

“But your Uncle Xiang is not to be taken lightly either.”

“Kong Tianbao, one more round.”

The hulking demon-human stamped the ground and collided head-on with a gust of wind in midair. A figure flew backward, bouncing more than ten meters before steadying himself, a Divine Fetus immortal in Daoist robes: Kong Tianbao.

The intensity of this battle was even more frightening than that between Han Yinshuang and the female Daoist up front. Under Bai Zhuqing’s lead, the disciples carefully took a detour around them. On the way they ran into Bai Leying, Bai Maoxu, and the others who had fled over.

“Where is Mother?” Bai Zhuqing anxiously grabbed her younger sister to ask.

“They are all hidden away.” Bai Leying nodded. “Do not worry. I arranged it myself.”

“And you?” Bai Zhuqing’s eyes widened, her elder-sister authority coming out. “Why did you not stay down there?”

“I came to help you…” Bai Leying shrank her neck and gave her wooden practice sword a couple of waves. “I can at least fight a bit…”

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Who was she trying to fool?

Bai Zhuqing nearly laughed from anger, but there was no time to argue. She could only drag her foolish little sister along and keep moving forward, hoping to find Xiang Xian’s protection.

After passing several more corridors, and looking past the eaves, they finally saw Xiang Xian, locked in combat against five demon-humans.

“Dao Lord Xiang is so gifted, why cling to the scenery of the last dynasty?”

A purple-robed Daoist among them was still trying to persuade her. “If you submit to His Highness the Crown Prince soon, the Yuming Sword Dao can shine again. Why cling beneath another’s eaves as some Yuming Peak Lord?”

“Humans have Human Principle. That is precisely why we have a world ruled by humans.” Xiang Xian only sneered. “A pity, creatures like you will never understand.”

“Then there is nothing more to say.”

The purple-robed Daoist sighed.

“What a shame. All those marvelous methods, and they will all be lost here with Dao Lord Xiang.”

“But you may rest easy. I know a little about soul-nurturing arts. After I slay you, I will gather your last wisp of soul into this Soul-Nurturing Bottle and do my best to recreate your lineages.”

Xiang Xian watched him pull a narrow-mouthed bottle from his sleeve. At the same time, a wave of dizziness and nausea surged through her mind. In that instant she caught a glimpse of his true form: a ghastly creature whose whole body seeped pus.

Just then a tearing sound split the air. She hurled the jade casket in her hand, flung the treasure fan and long sword that carried her sword wind aside to block three incoming blades from the flank, and drove the “Yuming Sword” in her hands into a forward slash.

Clang.

A tremendous force crashed into her. She managed to brace against it for a single heartbeat, then the narrow-mouthed bottle smashed into her abdomen. Her face went white and her body wavered, then dropped hard toward the ground.

“Grandmaster.”

Everyone rushed forward at once to shield her. Bai Zhuqing took the front, her gaze fixed and resolute on the demon-humans.

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“Step aside.” The purple-robed Daoist did not even bother to look at her properly.

“Or you die.”

Bai Zhuqing grit her teeth and spat out her sword pellet, trying to catch him off guard.

“Tricks for children.” The Daoist gave a cold laugh, snatching the sword pellet out of the air like a ball of gas and crushing it with a wet pop.

Bai Zhuqing’s face went bloodless.

She had no moves left. All she could do was watch as the Daoist and his companions drifted closer and closer.

“How about this one, then.”

At that moment, a cool voice sounded at everyone’s ears.

Buzz.

Even as the words faded, a strange humming spread outward from the sky above the mountain gate.

Oddly, within the area enveloped by this hum, all the blood, all the pollution, and all the clashes seemed to have their sound cut off in that instant, falling into absolute silence.

The entire mountain gate, the whole of Zhen’nan Circuit, was rendered utterly mute at that moment.

Only one person remained.

She stood in the air, overlooking all.

Only her voice was acknowledged.