Volume 5, Chapter 121 – Perilous Situation

Though she spoke lightly of the enemy, Bai Zhuqing did not dare be careless in the slightest. She knew very well that anyone who addressed the Saint of Pilgrimage Mountain that way was no ordinary immortal, Buddha, god, or monster.

This Yuxiu, that is, Daoist Guangsha, was very likely also an old monster of the Saint Realm. The entire mountain gate and dojo would inevitably be dragged into a bitter struggle by his arrival.

So from the very first move, she went all out. The moment the Qingwu Sword left its sheath, its blade sprang free with a sharp zheng, rolled once wrapped in her qi, and transformed into a blazing white-gold sphere that flashed toward the intruder in a ferocious arcing slash.

Yuxiu had only just returned and awakened, and this was also his first time seeing such a thing. He frowned slightly and let out a startled “Hm?” He was still hesitating over whether to receive it with his physical body when Yu Daoyong and Zhu Qingluo’s combined attack arrived as well.

Yu Daoyong summoned an ancient-looking mirror and, without another word, turned its face directly toward Yuxiu.

Zhu Qingluo, meanwhile, gave a cold snort. Behind her appeared nine phantoms that looked like both vines and fox tails, sweeping up a mass of green light that coiled toward him.

Though it was the first time the three had attacked together, they worked in perfect coordination. The rhythm of every strike was timed just right, forcing Yuxiu to remain where he stood and take all three attacks head-on. Only after enduring the wash of mirror-light and green light did he raise both hands together to block the sword pellet.

Screeech!

The instant the tiny sword pellet sphere struck his palms, it erupted in a piercing metallic shriek, spraying sparks like an industrial cutting saw.

“Trivial nonsense!”

Yuxiu’s expression darkened. The nails on both hands curled upward like living things, and great billows of blood-colored mist burst from all ten fingers. Then he puffed at the mist, and in an instant it transformed into an intensely dazzling mass of red light, wrapping around the sword pellet in a twisting coil.

Urgh…!

Bai Zhuqing’s consciousness was linked to the sword pellet, and she felt an utterly revolting, sticky sensation rise in her heart. But to Yuxiu’s surprise, and even to Yu Daoyong and Zhu Qingluo’s surprise, the sword pellet burst free from the confinement of the red light. It was not fouled and seized by it.

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What is this thing?

Yuxiu was startled. After returning, he had devoured quite a few modern cultivators. Though he could not read minds, he had learned a fair amount about their arts through fighting them, including the widely known art of flying swords. He had assumed that the sword pellet Bai Zhuqing controlled was merely a variation or advanced form of that art. Yet it was actually unaffected by his Blood-Sha Red Light? He could not foul it no matter how much he tried?

My Blood-Sha Red Light is a treasured artifact refined from the essence-blood of countless living beings… whether body cultivators or soul cultivators, once caught and wound up by this baleful light, all of them are defiled. Yet this strange little blade-sphere can remain untouched. It must be a carefully refined secret treasure!

At that thought, greed inevitably entered his gaze as he looked at the sword pellet. He stopped idly playing around under Yu Daoyong and Zhu Qingluo’s restraints, shook his shoulders free of the mirror-light immobilization and green-light entanglement, and reached straight for the sword pellet in midair.

“Demonic Daoist!”

At that moment, a furious shout rolled into the hall along with an overwhelming force. Li Huiran had arrived in a black robe, wielding a completely jet-black broad-bladed iron sword, and came down on Yuxiu with a smashing chop.

“You’re getting on my nerves!”

Yuxiu had only managed to descend earlier by bypassing Li Huiran’s defenses. He had originally been too lazy to bother with this “junior of the Demon Court” whose demonic aura had not even fully faded, thinking he was already giving Fang Yang some face. But these people had repeatedly overstepped their bounds to help this new dynasty resist him, and that had begun to irritate him.

“Did that old bastard Fang Yang never teach you how to show proper respect when meeting a Saint-level great power?”

He simply abandoned the sword pellet, turned, and twisted at the waist. Suddenly, explosive qi and blood surged out of his gaunt, withered frame, and under that flood of vitality his body swelled at astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, he had become a three-meter-tall muscular giant with purplish-red skin all over.

“Scram!”

The giant swept out with a punch. A flickering layer of black light appeared over his arm, and with that single blow he blocked Li Huiran’s heavy sword, which had come crashing down with gathered momentum. Not only did it send both him and his sword flying, but the expanding gale from the impact also snapped three thick corridor pillars inside the hall, making the ceiling sway and leaving the structure itself unstable.

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Microcosmic voidburst!

Seeing clearly how Li Huiran had been beaten back, and seeing the “layer of black light” that had just appeared on the giant’s hand, Bai Zhuqing’s brows drew tight and her gaze sharpened further.

So he really is a Saint… In that case, no one here can possibly be his match!

After all, while her techniques were superb, her cultivation was still only at the peak of Golden Core. In pure realm, she was not even equal to the two Origin Realm cultivators she had already dispatched away. In terms of actual strength, even if she was stronger than those two, it would not be by much.

Senior Master had not yet activated the Five-Qi Demon-Slaying Geng-Metal Sword Array, but it was probably only a matter of time… Even so, no one here, including Senior Master, was a true Saint-level great power. Even joining forces, at best they could contend with a demon saint lacking the support of a Heavenly Stem Precious Jade. How could they possibly deal with a genuine standard Saint Realm expert like this, one who had mastered microcosmic voidburst?

He stood on the same level as the Saint of Pilgrimage Mountain and Demon God Jiuli. Unless Elder Sister returned, no one would be able to defeat him.

In such a dangerous situation, with both her own life and the great enterprise of home and state hanging by a thread, Bai Zhuqing’s mind turned rapidly. Her gaze flicked toward Zhu Qingluo, only to find that instead of watching Yuxiu, she was scanning the corner of the hall, with a faint note of expectation in her eyes.

What was she looking for?

This should be her first time in this main hall, so what familiar thing here could possibly make her so expectant?

Suddenly, Bai Zhuqing remembered the towering figure that had stood in front of everyone during the descent of Void Tribulation, guarding them at Bai Xiang’s instruction.

So that’s it… him?

Bai Zhuqing turned her gaze back to Yuxiu. While controlling the sword pellet to coordinate with Yu Daoyong, Zhu Qingluo, and Li Huiran in fighting him, she kept thinking.

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This Yuxiu kept calling Fang Yang “that old bastard,” over and over. His tone made it clear that he knew Fang Yang, but they were not on good terms. Rather, each seemed to harbor some measure of fear and wariness toward the other.

Yes… that must be why he had not tried to kill the three of them from the outset. He knew they had once been Hall Masters and Heaven-Patrol officers of the Demon Court, protected by Fang Yang, and he feared that injuring them would bring Fang Yang’s retaliation.

Then his strength should be below Fang Yang’s. And he had clearly only just returned, lacking current knowledge of the main world. He did not even know that the Saint of Pilgrimage Mountain and Demon God Jiuli had already fallen to Elder Sister’s sword!

With all that information put together… there was one method worth trying.

Now it depended on whether reality would unfold the way she expected.

“Senior, this is not a place you should have come.”

As she was thinking, Xiang Xian flashed into place before Bai Zhuqing. Dressed in her signature purple palace gown, she flicked a long sleeve and intercepted the raging gale-force winds.

“This is the Returning-to-Origin Five-Qi Shenming Immortal Mountain, the sacred cultivation ground of the Great Xia Dynasty, and the very source of the current emperor’s rise.”

“Even Fang Yang, that old bastard you keep talking about, would not dare directly teleport himself to this place. You truly have nerve, coming here alone and violating this forbidden ground!”

Well said!

Bai Zhuqing’s spirits rose.

She did not know exactly what Xiang Xian was thinking… whether she had guessed that Bai Zhuqing had a trump card, or whether she was deliberately bluffing the enemy. But in the end… in the end, she had laid some groundwork, and that would benefit the plan Bai Zhuqing intended to carry out next.

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“What Great Xia…? It is nothing more than a centralized power that got lucky and inherited the Mandate of Heaven of the new epoch!”

Yuxiu appeared unshaken, but there was a faint flicker in his eyes, and even the sweeping motion of his arm paused for an instant. Clearly, deep down, he was not as arrogant as he appeared.

“Out of my way!”

He punched Li Huiran in the chest again. At once, a hole blasted open through his back, and shattered flesh and bone burst into a blood mist that sprayed out behind him. Yuxiu withdrew his fist coldly and said, “If you have the means, then let me see them! Otherwise, do not blame this old ancestor for showing no mercy!”

He was probing them.

The moment he did this, Xiang Xian, Yu Daoyong, Zhu Qingluo… and even Li Huiran, blunt and unreasonable as he was, all understood what Yuxiu was trying to do.

Yuxiu was not stupid. Of course he knew the new dynasty must possess real weight. Otherwise, in the intelligence he had gathered, Pilgrimage Mountain would never have been driven into hiding in the northern wastelands.

But he was unwilling to retreat.

He saw himself as a Saint-level great power, lofty in status, able to come and go as he pleased, bound by no taboo.

The reason he was still playing with them now, without truly striking to kill, was that he was waiting for Great Xia to reveal its real methods.

Unless they could truly suppress him and make him fear, he would never let the matter drop. He was determined to test the depth of this new world.