Volume 1, Chapter 153 – Alive

After leaving the meditation chamber, Shi Lan first went to find a new set of battle armor and changed into it, then went to look for Wu Lingkong.

“Lingkong, doesn’t the warship carry things like demon-slaying crossbows?”

“Of course it does.” Wu Lingkong nodded.

“Then why didn’t we use them?” Shi Lan asked in puzzlement. If they had first used demon-slaying crossbows to kill these demonic beasts, the casualties this time would not have been so great. She did not believe Bai Weiyang would treat the lives of Demon-Suppressing soldiers as a joke.

“The range of demon-slaying crossbows isn’t that far. If we want to hit the demonic beasts underground, we have to drop to a certain altitude. But once we descend, some high-level demonic beasts can easily attack the warship, and that could lead to accidents.”

“So that’s how it is.” Shi Lan understood. If anything happened to the warship and everyone aboard ended up stranded here, the consequences would be unimaginable.

“Is there anything on this warship that can instantly kill large numbers of Earth Fiend Realm demonic beasts?” Shi Lan asked. If there were some large-scale weapon like the big bed crossbows used in sieges, completing her quest would be much easier.

“Instantly? And in large numbers?” Wu Lingkong shook her head speechlessly.

“There’s no such terrifying thing. Earth Fiend Realm demonic beasts hide among countless other beasts, and the distance between them is extremely wide. Wanting to kill a large number of them all at once is simply impossible.”

If the Demon-Suppressing Army really had some tool that could mow down Earth Fiend Realm demonic beasts like weeds, the situation would not be what it was today.

Shi Lan felt a bit disappointed. She knew in her heart that something like that was unlikely to exist.

“To instantly kill large numbers of Earth Fiend Realm demonic beasts, you’d have to wipe out hundreds of thousands of low-level demonic beasts at the same time. You don’t need me to tell you what the odds of that are.”

So it still had to be done one step at a time…

Shi Lan sighed inwardly. Cutting corners and leaping straight to the top was not something that would work every time.

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“Miss Shi.”

A young man walked over to the two of them as they were speaking and greeted them. It was Shen Tianlan. He had also been among those who went out to fight earlier. He had taken some injuries, his face a bit pale and his aura weak.

“Brother Shen, are your injuries serious?” Shi Lan asked.

“Thank you for your concern, miss. It’s nothing serious.” Shen Tianlan shook his head slightly. “The casualties this time are quite heavy. I hadn’t seen any sign of you before, and I thought your injuries were severe. Now that I see your complexion is excellent, it seems I was worrying too much.”

Shi Lan did not talk for long. After exchanging a few polite words with Shen Tianlan, she returned to her own meditation chamber, calmed her slightly restless mind, and hurried to resume cultivating.

No matter when, increasing her strength was always the first priority.

The warship turned around and began heading southeast.

……

On the second level of the warship, in a meditation chamber.

There was a square table in the room. Bai Weiyang sat opposite Chi Songzi, holding a green seedling that shimmered with a gem-like glow in his hand.

Aside from the two of them, no one else was present.

“Daoist Chi Song, tell me what the hexagram says.” Bai Weiyang glanced at Chi Songzi and said calmly.

Chi Songzi’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. His fingertips trembled slightly as he reached toward the three jade plaques arranged on the table, his voice dry. “General Bai, this road is blocked.”

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Forced by Bai Weiyang and also for his own survival, this was already the fourth time Chi Songzi had cast a divination to glimpse the fortunes and misfortunes of their route.

At the words “this road is blocked,” Bai Weiyang’s expression shifted slightly.

Half a quarter of an hour later…

“Hum——”

Chi Songzi felt the warship under his feet tremble faintly as their heading changed once again.

“Daoist, I must trouble you to cast another hexagram.” Bai Weiyang raised his hand calmly.

“General, please spare this poor Daoist. There truly is no way to break this predicament. This warship has already been locked onto.” Chi Songzi pulled a long face. The fortunes of their journey were not something that could be changed by simply adjusting their direction.

“Not even the slightest method?” Bai Weiyang frowned.

Chi Songzi looked at Bai Weiyang in despair. When his gaze swept across the green seedling in Bai Weiyang’s hand, his eyes suddenly lit up. He closed his eyes and calculated on his fingers, and his expression brightened.

“Perhaps there is still a way…”

……

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. The journey over these three days was quite peaceful. Most of the martial artists aboard the warship had already recovered from the injuries sustained in the previous battle.

Apart from visiting the wounded a few times, Shi Lan had not taken a single step out of her meditation chamber, cultivating almost without pause.

“Bang——”

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“Creak——”

Several jarringly loud sounds, accompanied by a violent shudder of the warship, jolted Shi Lan out of her cultivation.

Without the slightest hesitation, she shot out like a tiger or leopard freed from its cage, burst open the door of her meditation chamber, and in just a few breaths had reached the deck.

After seeing the scene around the warship, Shi Lan couldn’t help but draw in a sharp breath.

Thick green bamboo vines, each several zhang across, stretched from somewhere in the void and coiled around the warship, binding it tightly so it could not move at all.

Two figures stood atop one of the bamboo vines. One of them was a black-armored woman, the same shapeshifted demon king who had attacked before.

Shi Lan had never seen her in person and had only learned some of what happened from the few words of others.

Bai Weiyang stood on the command platform, hands clasped behind his back as he gazed up at the sky, his expression showing not the slightest surprise.

Lei Wuji and Lin Yusheng appeared at Bai Weiyang’s side almost simultaneously, looking up at the two figures overhead.

“Sister Zhu, that old thing is the one who got Changqing killed!” The black-armored woman pointed at Lin Yusheng and shouted harshly.

Standing beside her was also a woman, dressed in green, with a jade hairpin in her hair. She looked to be around twenty.

At the demon king’s words, the woman in green said nothing. Her expression remained calm as she raised her hand and pointed across the distance. A green radiance flashed in the air, and a sea of bamboo swayed across the sky, serene and quiet yet hiding lethal intent.

“Zheng——”

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Before Lin Yusheng could react, Bai Weiyang stepped into the sky. A sword shadow over a thousand zhang long tore across the heavens.

Sword qi howled, and an illusory land covered in countless sharp blades condensed in midair, surging forward to meet the sea of bamboo.

“Boom——”

The land phantom held for only a few breaths before shattering. A raging tide of spiritual qi roared in all directions.

The sea of bamboo was unimaginably heavy, as though it had crushed the very void itself, making the hearts of some of the martial artists who had rushed to the deck tremble.

With a muffled groan, Bai Weiyang fell back onto the command platform. He looked up at the vast sea of bamboo, his expression still utterly calm.

In the end, the sea of bamboo stopped abruptly less than three feet from the warship.

The woman in green and the demon king both stared at the short green seedling in Bai Weiyang’s hand with looks of delight.

“Give him to me, and I won’t kill you this time.” The woman in green stretched out her hand.

Bai Weiyang gave a slight shake of his head. “I want everyone alive.”

“Impossible. That old thing must die!” Before the woman in green could speak, the demon king beside her jumped in.

The woman in green stared at Bai Weiyang and said slowly, “I will say it again. Hand him over to me, and I will not kill you this time. If you insist on refusing, I will kill a hundred people for every breath that passes.”