Volume 3, Chapter 120 – Sealed

Who was it?

Such a great upheaval made countless people lift their heads. One line of sight after another fell on the figure standing in the sky. They saw a white-haired woman in a dark Daoist robe, bare-footed, and recognized her as Bai Xiang, who had flown back at top speed.

Her tight combat suit had been torn open by the rampaging sword-Qi during her breakthrough. It still clung to her body but had lost all protective function, so when she passed over the dojo she had casually grabbed a robe and skirt, changing into them on the spot.

Sister Xiang!

Joy lit up Bai Zhuqing’s face. She opened her mouth on reflex, wanting to call out to Bai Xiang.

Only as the shout left her lips did she realize something was wrong. Why… why was there no sound?

It was not just that her own voice would not come out. It was as if all other sounds had vanished too, simply not allowed to exist.

The wide-ranging silence lasted for roughly a few breaths. After that, all the natural rules slid back into place. The roars and shouts of killing, woven together from the clashes between outer disciples and demon disciples, rose up again.

Only this time, none of the top experts dared to move.

Under the lead of a purple-robed Daoist, the four demon-humans who had been besieging Xiang Xian earlier joined him. The five of them gathered in one spot, dropped to a slightly lower stretch of sky, and slowly moved to encircle Bai Xiang.

“So you are the imperial daughter Xiang?” The purple-robed Daoist’s face was grave. He tightened his grip on the narrow-mouthed bottle in his hand, studying Bai Xiang as he demanded, “You broke through again? Are you human or demon?”

Purple Soul Monastery, Wang Changhe.

Staring at the Daoist, the information about him naturally surfaced in Bai Xiang’s mind.

Like Ji Chang, he was one of the offerings of the National Preceptor’s Office, but his abilities were far greater. Together with two others, he was known as one of the three grandmasters of the National Preceptor’s Office. Not only had he achieved mastery in the “Dao of Vacuity arts,” he also wielded a soul-seizing secret art passed down in Purple Soul Monastery.

Soul-seizing…

Her white hair drifted. In the shadows under those strands lay a pair of cold golden eyes. Under their stare, Wang Changhe felt a chill run through him for no reason at all and snapped in anger, “Imperial daughter, you are sorely lacking in manners. I will simply restrain you and present you before His Highness for judgment.”

Buzz.

He never finished the sentence.

With a flick of Bai Xiang’s wrist, the thin blade of Feixiang Heaven let out a clear sword chant. The air rippled under that sound, the ripples spreading again and again. In moments, they had created another zone of silence in midair, and no words could emerge from his throat.

Sly sorcery.

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Wang Changhe thrust a finger toward Bai Xiang. At once, the other four shot forward, each gripping a treasured sword. From four directions they rushed her, intending to pin her from the sky.

Clang.

In the next instant, the sword chant sharpened. An invisible wave of sound crossed space in a heartbeat and slammed into the four demon-humans midair.

Silently, their human skins tore under the sonic tide.

Like clay figurines meeting a surge of water, that one impact shattered their faces and forms, blowing them apart. First their skins were ripped open, exposing the demon bodies within, then flesh and blood were stripped away and bones scattered. Even those bones were sliced into fine powder by the sound, leaving not a trace behind.

What sort of technique was this?

Wang Changhe watched in shocked terror, yet still did not forget to send the narrow-mouthed bottle soaring up, trying to draw the four men’s souls into it, restore his strength, and test Bai Xiang again.

The development once more defied his expectations. In the field of vision only he could see, four twisted, howling skeletal wraiths were just about to fly into the bottle’s mouth when they were suddenly yanked skyward by a suction force many times stronger than before.

He jerked his head up and stared, dumbfounded, as those four remnants of soul were pinched together in a pale hand and squeezed into a small round ball.

The owner of that hand still held herself with the same “haughty” bearing, and the gaze from those golden eyes looked even colder than before.

“…” Wang Changhe’s lips pulled into a rigid smile. He hurled the narrow-mouthed bottle at Bai Xiang and spun around, fleeing down the mountain.

As he turned, he thought he heard the sound of the bottle shattering. His body convulsed, and a mouthful of purple-black blood forced its way between his clenched teeth.

It did not matter. Wang Changhe did not care about such a loss.

The primary goal was to fully open the Illusory Realm. Once His Highness descended with his generals, this damned imperial daughter would obediently bow to the Immortal Dynasty.

Bai Xiang watched his retreating back with icy eyes and did not give chase. She simply raised Feixiang Heaven before her chest, closed her eyes, and held her breath.

A moment later, she let out a slow, even exhale. The blade and edge of the sword twisted slightly, and the silent zone in the air spread out from her once again, this time carrying a hint of savage ferocity.

Buzz.

On the first sword chant, dark clouds gathered and lightning turned into lotus blossoms.

Buzz.

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On the second sword chant, the lotus blossoms exploded and order itself unraveled.

The most obvious effect was that all sound in that domain vanished, and every demon invader found their techniques losing all power.

Those who struck with sword Qi saw their sword Qi disperse.

Those who tried to stir up their strength felt their muscles and bones go limp.

One cultivator after another, one demon after another, found their supernatural powers stripped away in that moment. The situation on the field reversed at once.

The female Daoist tangled with Han Yinshuang twisted her face in fury, then took a sword thrust straight through the center of her brow.

Even Wang Changhe let out an inarticulate cry as he fell, his flight technique completely useless. He could not even flee.

How could this be…

How could this be?

His eyes were full of disbelief, yet he could not force any sound past his throat. Struggling to twist in the air, the National Preceptor of Purple Soul Monastery barely managed to look up and see countless bright blue lotus blossoms blooming in the sky all at once, then shattering into a thousand, ten thousand lightning-forged “demon-subduing pestles” that came crashing down.

One of them was aimed straight at his position. He cycled through one secret art after another midair, yet not a single one took effect.

With a wet crack,

Lightning pierced him in an instant.

The crystalline demon-subduing pestle burst apart again after passing through him. The wild thunder turned into torrents of sword-Qi storms, like whirlpools drawing his body in, grinding it into a slurry of blood and hurling it into the air as blood rain.

The same scene unfolded across the entire dojo and mountain gate. Every demon invader received their own thunder lotus blossom and had no power to resist, each one shattered and vaporized in a single blow from a demon-subduing pestle.

Wet cracks and dull booms overlapped.

Ten thousand bolts of lightning hammered and scoured Shenming Peak. To all the Shenming disciples, the blue currents in the air seemed to connect into a single sheet, an ocean of lightning. Only when their vision finally cleared again did they realize that the demons and monsters who had just been trembling in front of them were gone, leaving only scorched black marks behind.

A miracle?

Some of the newer disciples had not yet realized who had come to their aid. Their legs gave out and they dropped to their knees, bowing toward the sky.

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Others, who were closer, could barely make out Bai Xiang in the heavens. One by one, they knelt toward her as well, calling out in a jumble, “We welcome the Dao Lord!”

Bai Xiang’s expression did not change. Her gaze swept across their faces one by one. Only when it passed over Bai Zhuqing and the others did it soften slightly.

Bai Zhuqing and Bai Leying were supporting the wounded Xiang Xian. Forcing a grin, Xiang Xian lifted her hand with some effort and pointed toward a heap of ruins in front of them.

Following the direction of her finger, Bai Xiang saw gravel trickling down from the rubble.

Her figure flickered in the air. The next instant, that pile of ruins exploded outward, and there she was, her left hand pressed to the forehead of the elephant-beast demon, dragging it along the ground. The brute force of it tore the remaining flesh from its bones.

“Spare…”

“Spare…”

The elephant-beast demon could not even speak a full word. She dragged it by the skull to the edge of the peak, then flung it out, smashing through five or six layers of rock and tearing a gap in the drifting sea of white clouds below. With a boom, it crashed into the ground.

Bai Xiang swung Feixiang Heaven out of her hand. At once, everyone heard a faint whistle at their ears, as if distorted currents of air were being summoned over and sucked into the blade.

Once she had collected the remnants of its soul, Bai Xiang left them with only one line, “Reform your defenses,” then wrapped in her flowing robe, she plunged down and landed beside the demon’s bones.

This demon really was thick-skinned and tough-fleshed. A demon-subduing pestle had blown away half its body, and Bai Xiang had then scraped it along the ground by the skull bone and knocked it down the mountain. All that had only shattered its bones a little more. Its skeletal frame still barely held together.

So it had walked the “body-refining to sainthood” path.

Her bare feet stepped on decayed sludge, yet no filth could cling to those white soles. Standing beside the elephant-beast demon’s remains, Bai Xiang could not feel its soul anywhere.

Silently, red mist gathered around her.

She only lowered her head for an instant. When she looked up again, she found herself wrapped in a sea of blood-sha mist. The dense red obscured everything within three meters, and strange sounds howled and overlapped in the haze.

Cackling.

Low sobs.

The ring of metal.

The clash of blades and weapons, mixed with voices talking, laughing, footsteps, and countless other bits of noise piled together. The bombardment of it all left Bai Xiang with the sudden illusion that she was not at the foot of Shenming Peak at all but had stepped into some other space.

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No, perhaps not an illusion.

As Feixiang Heaven swiftly drew in the memories hidden there, Bai Xiang understood. This was a node the enemy had deliberately set up at the foot of the mountain.

There were several such nodes throughout Zhen’nan Circuit. The demon-humans had descended through them, using a principle similar to the blood sea springs she herself had traversed before.

All at once, the blood mist in front of her parted, revealing a strange flying boat docked on the ground. A group of demon disciples in Daoist robes were boarding in neat order, while several purple-robed Daoists stood guard nearby. They spotted Bai Xiang at the same time.

“Who are you?” One purple-robed Daoist frowned as he strode toward her, scolding sharply, “Acting on your own… do you not know you might attract filthy things?”

“Filthy things.” Bai Xiang repeated softly and gave a slight nod. “In that case, you took a risk as well.”

“Eh?” The Daoist blinked. In the next instant, Bai Xiang drew her sword with a flick from more than ten meters away, and his head dropped from his neck. From the severed stump, blood fountained skyward.

“Enemy attack!”

“Enemy attack!”

The demon ranks broke into chaos. Some tried to rush aboard the boat, while others leapt down to form a line and face Bai Xiang.

She spared the flying boat a slightly longer look, then chose not to unleash anything too violent. Instead, she cut down the demons one by one, a sword for each. Before long, her dark robe was spattered with scarlet demon blood, and even strands of her white hair were stained red.

“A ghost. A ghost.”

Only then did the remaining demons realize something was terribly wrong. They scattered in all directions, shouting at the top of their lungs as they ran, “Void demon descended, run, run!”

Bai Xiang had just begun to move to finish them when the void around her twisted. Her body lurched, and she found herself back on the muddy ground.

The red mist had vanished. The elephant-beast demon’s bones lay at her side.

Roughly thirty meters ahead, the demon corpses lay strewn across the ground, and the flying boat had sunk into the mire along with them.

So this node had collapsed.

It could no longer link to the plane of the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty. At least the foot of Shenming Peak was safe now.