Volume 5, Chapter 81 – Descent (Two-in-One)

[A pack of ants…]

Li Nanyun narrowed her eyes, locking her gaze onto the few people atop the cliff, and casually swung a palm toward them.

That single palm strike was no trivial thing. To the Qingyun Army farther away, every cultivator and every soldier could see it clearly—the “nine-headed giant bird” at the edge of the sky also flapped its wings in tandem, turning into a violent black gale that swept downward. The mere aftershocks alone made the military banner, itself a “magic treasure,” shudder wildly in the wind.

She had assumed these people would be just like those frail captives from before, easily seized and controlled by her, reduced to a mass of blood and bubbling gore… yet when the black wind reached them, it seemed to strike some invisible barrier and boomed back in reverse.

“Hm?”

Li Nanyun’s eyes widened. What was this?

No matter how much she had yet to recover, no matter that she was not at her peak, her realm was still that of a “Demon God.” Even in that age when immortals and Buddhas governed the world and demons ran rampant, that was a realm comparable to a “Sage”—and because innate beings like them were more deeply affected by Loss of Order than humans, there was even a chance of comprehending void-governing divine abilities more profound than “microcosmic voidbursts.”

A seizing force driven by a realm like that, even at only thirty percent strength—how could it possibly be broken so easily?

At once, Li Nanyun looked up at Bai Tingyun. Yet she found that this middle-aged man with the handlebar mustache was also frowning tightly, as if he had no idea what was happening either.

Reality did not leave her confused for long. Just as Liu Yong was starting to feel mortifyingly awkward, he finally noticed that the void above his head was condensing.

The void was condensing—an absurd way to put it, perhaps, yet that was exactly what it looked like. It was as if everything nearby, including the air and even light and shadow themselves, were shrinking inward toward a central point, until all of it compressed into a tiny “black dot.” Then that “black dot” expanded and tore apart, forming an oblique void-rift hanging down through the air.

Huuu…

A hand suddenly reached out from within, grasping one edge of the void-rift as if pulling on a doorframe.

Apparently finding the rift too narrow to pass through, another hand braced itself on the opposite side. Both hands exerted force at once, wrenching the crack open to either side until it was twice as wide as before.

Only then did Liu Yong and the others catch sight of the figure they had been expecting, crossing through the rift.

First came the head—her signature white hair streaming behind her. From this angle, her profile was perfectly framed by the moonlight, and they could see that her eyes were closed, as though she were still lost in thought.

Then came the body, and the legs.

She evidently had not made full preparations before coming, because aside from that familiar black dragon robe patterned in gold, the only thing covering her legs was a layer of black silk stockings. She had not even put on shoes.

The newcomer could only be Bai Xiang.

Her eyes were closed because most of her attention was still occupied elsewhere.

Meridians…

Bone and blood…

Mm.

It has been more than three days. I seem to have run a little over time.

Probably because it was only a fragment. The authority it granted me was less than expected.

But it was enough to create and straighten out the main framework.

At last, we have truly become one.

Only when the void-rift was squeezed shut again by the surrounding space did the Empress of Great Xia’s snow-white lashes tremble slightly and those uncanny golden pupils open.

In that instant—even Li Nanyun, when she instinctively looked into those eyes and happened to meet those golden whirlpools head-on, could not help but lose herself for a brief moment before wrenching her gaze away, a trace of horror on her face.

“Impossible…”

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She looked dazed and shaken, almost frightened.

“A truly full soul…? How is that possible…? Every sapient being is innately incomplete. No one should be able to walk that path through to the end… that is the price of ‘resisting’ Loss of Order…”

But very quickly, her gaze turned vicious again. She stared at her opponent once more with an even deeper emotion—something that could only be called greed—and demanded, “You’re Di Xiang? The empress worshiped by the people of Eastern Xia?”

Her voice echoed across the wilderness plain. Both armies, along with the Demon Kings caught between them, heard it with perfect clarity.

Shock filled every face, because even Bai Tingyun’s subordinates had never imagined things would develop like this. They could never have fantasized that the High Emperor would come to their aid on this mission. Even with ten times the courage, they would not have dared dream such a thing.

But this scene before their eyes…

That overwhelmingly grand entrance, those white hair and golden pupils, the dragon robe she wore—it all seemed to prove that the one who had arrived could only be her!

“Dao Lord…”

On the cliff behind them, Xu Shu—who knew the “reason” for this—was just about to lead the others in kneeling when he looked up again and realized Bai Xiang had vanished from sight.

Where was Dao Lord (Master)?

The few of them stared blankly, then saw a dazzling light flare across the night sky ahead, drawing their eyes to it at once.

It was a sword-light.

At first, the sword-light was black.

A black deeper than the dark night sky itself, and moving with extreme slowness.

But as time seemed to slow, that deep black slash-mark continued advancing forward. Just like the void-rift from before, it began drawing in the surrounding space, guiding it to collapse and converge toward the front, making the darkness at its center ever deeper—as though it would swallow even the gaze directed at it.

When that phenomenon reached its limit, a brilliant burst of light erupted from the center of the “sword-light” of its own accord.

It was a white radiance brighter and purer than moonlight.

So piercing, so dazzling, it seemed to outshine even the blazing sun.

She had actually comprehended this method too?

The others only stared at the sword-light in a daze, but the Demon Kings, the Qingyun Demon Saint, and Li Nanyun all went pale.

Li Nanyun most of all. The information she had gleaned from the sacrificial offerings’ memories was that “Di Xiang had only just broken into the Sage level. She had also wasted ten years trapped in the Sky Sea, and in theory should still need a great amount of time to consolidate her cultivation. She ought not pose too much of a threat.”

But what was she seeing now?

“Microcosmic voidburst”!

And this was not even the most basic use of it—she could actually cast it away from her body and form it into a ranged slash!

That strike was aimed straight at the voidfiend army… it could not be allowed to land!

Grinding her teeth inwardly, Li Nanyun’s figure flickered. She too broke through the void and rushed up to meet the sword-light, smashing both hands forward together.

Whoosh!

To everyone else, what they saw was a giant bird silhouette appearing behind her in that instant—and of the nine bird-heads that blotted out the sky, one suddenly vanished.

“Get lost!”

Li Nanyun growled low. As she activated an innate divine ability, both palms were imbued out of nowhere with a terrifying burst of brute force. Tiny voidbursts densely packed her swinging hands, ripping through space and releasing a string of muffled thunderclaps!

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Clang!

In that brief instant, the two collided, and a black rift a hundred meters long was suddenly torn open across the night sky.

Li Nanyun’s body shuddered. Her palms twisted, and all ten fingers trembled and sprang open as though an ordinary person had just punched a block of iron. She was smashed violently backward through the air.

How could this…?

Her eyes went wide, her face full of stunned disbelief. In the very next instant, she sharply focused—

A slender pale hand came down from above and seized her by the face.

“Worship?”

Through the gaps between those fingers, Li Nanyun could see those golden eyes close in before her.

“They bow to me of their own will.”

“So don’t compare me to livestock like you.”

“You are not worthy.”

The moment those words fell, Li Nanyun felt an irresistible force descend from that hand. Her soul and will were suppressed in that instant, leaving her unable to move. She could only watch helplessly as the other woman gripped her by the face and slammed her all the way from the sky down into the ground.

Boom!!!

In an instant, a pure white light rose from the point where Li Nanyun struck the earth.

The white light spread outward continuously, forming a hemispherical dome. Half a second later, the outline of that dome began to tremble and crack, and countless tiny beams of light shot outward from its center, ultimately wrecking the structure of the void and leaving that entire area filled with fine black rifts cut into existence.

This…

It was not just everyone else who stood there dumbfounded. Even Bai Tingyun, the commander famed for his iron-blooded ruthlessness and cold composure, could not maintain control of his expression when he witnessed that sight. Even his habitually tight-pressed lips parted slightly.

From his vantage point in the air, he could see it clearly… because the impact point was right in the middle of the voidfiend army. That one explosion alone killed over ten thousand voidfiends. As the white light spread, their bodies could do no more than appear as tiny black shadows, little by little swallowed and digested by that radiance, until not even dust remained.

That had to be complete annihilation of both body and soul, Bai Tingyun thought.

Given her earlier feats of “bestowing titles upon heaven and earth” and “waging the northern campaign alone,” he had already had some mental sense of how powerful this “High Emperor” ought to be.

But only by facing her in person—only by witnessing her fight—could one understand what kind of mighty power this truly was… it lay far beyond anything the mundane world could imagine or touch.

Whoosh!

Suddenly—the aftershocks of the blast, and the savage astral wind they stirred up, swept over him, whipping his hair and beard into a frenzy. He was forced to gather all his cultivation merely to remain hovering in place, and could only narrow his eyes as he watched the battle ahead.

At the same time, upon the trunk of the Qingyun Demon Saint, the separated avatar of the Demon Lord half-knit its brows, surprise showing on its face.

“How can this be… her cultivation has risen again?”

“I had intended to use the information gap to make that stupid bird take the lead, then link up with the others afterward and strike together. To keep the stupid bird from losing its nerve, I deliberately concealed some intelligence.”

“But now, it seems that Jiuli, not yet restored to its peak, probably will not last long in her hands.”

“What terrifying talent…”

“After investigating her background, I originally thought those eyes were inherited from Emperor Feng. But now it seems otherwise.”

“I have to speed things up.”

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With that thought, the Demon Lord’s avatar sent an order through its link with the Qingyun Demon Saint. The Qingyun Demon Saint immediately understood and began burning its essence-blood at once. That trunk, seventy to eighty meters thick, shriveled by half in only a few breaths. By force, it burned out a plume of essence-blood wolf-smoke that pierced through the desert wilderness and the heavens alike, sending a signal to certain people and guiding them to this location.

“Hm?”

At the center of the explosion, within a massive crater gouged into the earth, Bai Xiang floated in midair and abruptly lifted her head, her gaze shifting to that plume of essence-blood smoke.

Below her lay a headless body, mangled all over and leaking blood with a sizzling sound.

That flesh was still struggling, trying to pull itself back together.

“Two auras.”

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes.

“One is Fang Yang. Scar healed, pain forgotten.”

“The other I don’t recognize… but it carries a trace of Blood Soul Heaven. The Blood Lord of the west?”

“Di Xiang… ah… Di Xiang—!!!”

Her disregard utterly enraged “Jiuli.” This Demon God, born in ancient times and likely tens of thousands of years old, had not suffered such humiliation for far too long!

Bai Xiang lowered her gaze again and saw that, even as the headless corpse howled from inside its chest cavity, all the flesh on its body was rapidly melting away. Most of all, it spread outward from the chest, revealing a hollow cavity there, within which an eye took shape—an eye that looked as though it had been condensed from flame.

The moment that eye formed, Bai Xiang felt the surrounding void lock into place. Then the melting flesh-man sprang up like a carp leaping from water and lunged at her, arms spread wide as though trying to wrap her in an embrace.

So this is Demon God Jiuli’s divine ability?

Bai Xiang raised a brow.

That last one increased physical force. This one seals and suppresses?

I see. Nine heads, nine divine abilities.

Fang Yang might have trouble dealing with you, but against me…

“Boring.”

That two-word judgment left her lips. As a glint flashed through her dark-gold pupils, the sealing divine ability binding Bai Xiang shattered instantly. She raised her right arm, shaped her fingers like a sword, and from below cut upward in a lifting slash.

There was no suspense, nor any room to resist. That “Void-Skimming Sword Finger” was like a wet finger dragged across a blackboard, ripping open a black gap as it passed and directly slicing Li Nanyun’s remaining body into two.

Bang!

Those two halves of flesh were instantly vaporized under the pressure of qi-force, becoming two clouds of fine blood mist. The remaining force of the strike still did not slow. It carved a slash mark from the bottom of the crater, split the entire voidfiend army in an instant, continued all the way onward, and vanished straight through the Qingyun Demon Saint’s remaining trunk.

Splash!

An instant later, demon blood gushed from the Qingyun Demon Saint like a waterfall. The gigantic tree-demon let out a heaven-shaking scream of agony, and even its canopy went into a mad frenzy, sweeping aside and flinging away countless circling demon birds.

“Still not dead?”

Still floating within the crater, Bai Xiang’s posture remained utterly relaxed. Beneath the swaying hem of her dress, a pair of black-silk-clad feet hung in the air, one lightly braced against the other, while her golden pupils swept toward a patch of empty space.

“Unable even to unseal your own flesh, yet your soul can survive one of my sword strikes.”

“Not bad.”

“You have more tenacity than Fang Yang.”

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The moment her words fell, the void behind her began to contract. In an instant, it dragged out a blurry human shape, both fists raised, each enhanced with “microcosmic voidbursts,” and smashed them toward her.

“Di Xiang! You deserve to die!!!”

The one who had arrived was none other than the Sage of Pilgrimage Mountain. He had already taken on that giant-like “combat form.” His essence-blood blazed over the surface of his body like flames, his eyes were wide with fury, his muscles bulged, and his voice thundered out in a roar.

“So you’ve come.”

He had thought his appearance would at least surprise Bai Xiang—at the very least, force her to treat him cautiously. But in the next instant, Fang Yang saw Bai Xiang’s brows relax, and a smile suddenly bloom across that peerlessly beautiful face.

Bang!

Bai Xiang simply lifted her right hand to meet the giant fist head-on. That overconfident gesture made Fang Yang’s pupils contract.

Back then, didn’t she have to shatter her sword and strengthen every bodily orifice just to suppress me? How can she now…?

Before he could think further, the two had already collided directly.

Compared to the giant fist, Bai Xiang’s spread palm looked far too slender and fragile. But the instant her palm met his fist, and her gaze turned cold, a lethal sense of danger exploded inside Fang Yang’s heart.

Something… had pierced in.

Faster than light, swifter than thought—Fang Yang only had time to instinctively jerk his head to one side, and that thing blasted straight through his entire left arm, drawing a black line as it passed between the left side of his chest and his neck.

Whoosh!

Badly wounded, Fang Yang landed and staggered back several steps. Then he raised his head and stared ahead with a gaze full of horror and even blank confusion.

The Empress of Great Xia still stood there in all her majesty, robed in dragon-patterned vestments, black-silk-clad legs visible beneath the parted skirt.

Compared to the last time they had fought, she was vastly more composed this time—and the source of it all lay in the thing hovering above her right palm at this very moment.

It was a sword.

A weapon that fully preserved the style of the former dynasty—something one might, in a narrator’s terms, describe as a kind of “Han sword.” It had a thick, long cylindrical hilt wrapped in a precise coil of black cord.

Its pale white blade was razor-sharp, as though forged from condensed moonlight. Merely looking at it made one feel as if one’s eyes were being stabbed.

Its guard was shorter than that of a western cross-sword. At the center of the dark-gold guard, protruding symmetrically to either side, was an exquisitely beautiful woman’s face. Looking closely, it was unmistakably the empress’s own face.

The sword as a whole ought to have felt majestic and holy, yet because of that face, it gave off an eerie, almost demonic aura.

It was hard to describe.

But it was enough to leave Fang Yang utterly shaken.

This… this is…

Why… why did this sword come directly out of her palm… out of her body itself…!?

“The last time we fought, partway through, you gave me a sense of ‘regret.’ As if you regretted not being able to witness me at my full peak.”

With her right hand raised beneath the Dao sword hovering upright above it, Bai Xiang lifted her chin slightly and looked down at Fang Yang with the utmost arrogance and contempt. In the shadows cast by her hair and eye sockets, those two golden pupils glimmered faintly.

“Well, now you’ve seen it.”

“So can you die in peace now?”