“You don’t look so good. What’s wrong?” the Sixth Elder asked.
Xu Yifan’s mood had turned restless too, a knot of worry forming in his chest.
Last time, when Xian Qinglin had called him fat, it had genuinely irritated him for quite a while. To be honest, if it had been anyone else in this situation, he’d probably be laughing to the heavens right now, shouting “Serves you right!” three times over. But when it came to Xian Qinglin, he found himself being pathetic all over again.
Damn it, beauty really does mess a man up.
Xu Yifan stood up. “Master, can we not go any faster?”
“Can’t go any faster than this!” the Sixth Elder said helplessly. “This is a fourth-grade flying ship. You expect it to match a fifth-grade one for speed?”
Just as he said this, a booming crash sounded from outside, and the flying ship suddenly shook violently, as if it had collided with something.
Xu Yifan lost his footing and fell to the floor, landing hard. Inside the cabin, tables and chairs toppled every which way, teacups shattering across the floor. The Sixth Elder barely managed to stay upright, his brow furrowing as he shouted toward outside, “Fifth Senior Martial Brother, what’s going on?”
The Fifth Elder’s voice came from outside, somewhat urgent. “Sixth Junior Martial Brother, get out here quickly.”
The Sixth Elder was already moving to head out. Xu Yifan scrambled up to follow, but the Sixth Elder pushed him back. “There might be danger out there. Stay inside.”
Outside, a pitch-black flying ship was slowly materializing in midair. It must have been fitted with a concealment talisman before, which was why it hadn’t been detected, by the looks of it, they’d deliberately laid an ambush here.
A flag flew from that ship, bearing the emblem of a black bat with red eyes.
The Demon Gate Sect of the Eastern Region used a Night-Blood Bat as its emblem.
The Fifth Elder stood on the deck, narrowing his eyes. “Whoever’s come, they’re not here for friendly reasons.”
Since ancient times, the righteous and the demonic paths had been mutually irreconcilable.
Righteous cultivators took eliminating evil and upholding justice as their sacred duty.
Demonic cultivators were, for the most part, vicious sorts, cruel and merciless, given to wickedness, without regard for human ethics or order.
But it wasn’t as though every righteous cultivator was good and every demonic cultivator was evil. Some righteous cultivators secretly did far more evil deeds behind closed doors, worse than the demonic cultivators themselves.
At that moment, six demonic cultivators clad in black robes appeared on the deck of the ship. They were completely shrouded by their black robes, their faces covered with matching black masks, revealing only a pair of lecherous, evil eyes and a pale chin, each with a dark red jade pendant at their waist.
These were elders of the Demon Gate Sect.
The Eastern Region had far more abundant spiritual energy than the Southern Region, and its spiritual herbs and treasures were also far beyond anything the Southern Region could rival. Because of this, sects in the Eastern Region often boasted a dozen or so Golden Core powerhouses.
And here, the enemy had sent six of them at once.
The Fifth Elder thought to himself, this isn’t simple at all!
One of the black-robed men laughed heartily. “Hahaha, another batch of big fish delivered right to our door. If we manage to wipe out this group too, this trip will truly have been worthwhile.”
Such arrogant words, as if they were nothing but lambs waiting for slaughter. The Fifth Elder, indignant, turned his head. “Sixth Junior Martial Brother, show them a taste of what we’re made of.”
The Sixth Elder ignored him entirely, looking at the black-robed men and asking loudly, “Was it you who attacked our Xianhao Sect’s flying ship passing through here last time as well?”
The other party answered, “Indeed it was.”
“Why?” the Sixth Elder asked.
The northern and southern regions were separated by countless mountains and ranges, with places as treacherous as Lianyun Mountain scattered everywhere between them. There was no way the enemy would be bored enough to cross thousands of miles, risking their lives, purely to pick a fight for no reason.
“Since you’re facing death anyway, might as well tell you, someone paid a hefty price, specifically hiring us to come take your lives,” the man said.
The Sixth Elder let out a snort.
The Fifth Elder’s brow furrowed. Could this really be Ma Xiang’s doing? Who else would want their lives?
Xianling Sect?
Not impossible either.
After all, their Xianhao Sect and Xianling Sect had never been on particularly good terms, over the years, disciples of both sects venturing out for trials often ended up fighting each other over various opportunities and encounters.
Over the years, quite a number of Xianling Sect disciples had died at the hands of Xianhao Sect, and likewise, quite a number of their own Xianhao Sect disciples had died at Xianling Sect’s hands.
Because of this, the animosity between the two sects had only deepened over time.
“Who sent you?” the Fifth Elder asked.
“Who? Go ask the King of Hell about that.” The black-robed men, apparently no longer interested in conversation, each summoned their magic treasures and launched an attack on the Sixth Elder and the others.
“Truly the height of arrogance.” The Fifth Elder, showing not the slightest fear, took a step back. “Sixth Junior Martial Brother, go.”
The Sixth Elder: “…”
The Grand Elder and the others primarily cultivated pill arts, formation arts, and the like, when it came to actual combat, none of them could match the Sixth Elder or Seventh Elder.
The Sixth Elder soared up into midair, facing the black-robed men opposite him, his voice rolling out like thunder across all directions.
He pressed two fingers together against his forehead and slowly summoned forth his magic sword, which had merged into his own body, chanting, “Sword array, rise…”
A magic sword over a meter long, its entire body gleaming with cold light, hovered before the Sixth Elder. At his command, it instantly summoned countless clones of itself, the split swords shooting forward at tremendous speed toward the black-robed men. In an instant, countless magic swords surrounded the black-robed men entirely, and then the sword bodies erupted with dazzling golden light, the golden light coalescing into two swirling clusters of sword energy that churned beneath the black-robed men’s feet, forming a sealing grand array that trapped all six black-robed men within.
The black-robed men immediately stopped in their tracks. The array’s light seethed with murderous intent, radiating a terrifying, spine-chilling pressure. The black-robed men, suddenly not daring to act recklessly, watched with wary, alarmed expressions.
“What is this thing?”
“Fellow disciples, don’t panic, this should be the Taiji Bagua Sword Array.”
“So that’s it. I’ve long heard that Xianhao Sect’s founding Sect Master created the Lanshan Sword Technique himself, capable of killing enemies far above one’s own level, unrivaled among those of equal cultivation. Word has it that man ascended to Deity Transformation on the strength of this very technique alone. Seeing it now, it truly lives up to its reputation.”
“Didn’t that Lan Yue guy not use this move last time though?”
Lan Yue was the Seventh Elder’s given name.
“He probably wasn’t expecting our surprise attack last time and didn’t have time to set up the array.”
“Old Ghost, what should we do now?” one of the black-robed men asked.
“No matter. The Taiji Bagua Sword Array is built on the principle of yin and yang, it needs two people jointly commanding the array to reach its full strength. Right now there’s only Lan Yang alone holding it up. He can’t sustain it. This array is a paper tiger in its current state, all bark and no bite. If we work together, we won’t need more than half a stick of incense to break through it.”
Seeing the black-robed men trying to break the array, the Sixth Elder charged straight into the Taiji Bagua Array.
Within the Taiji Array, he held home-court advantage, so for a time, even facing six opponents alone, he showed no sign of being outmatched.
The seven of them fought a chaotic, blood-drenched battle within the sword array, blades flashing amid shadows of blood. Although bolstered by the sword array, all six black-robed men were at mid to late Golden Core cultivation, each with numerous tricks up their sleeve, making it genuinely difficult to capture them all at once.
The Seventh Elder’s fate was still unknown, having fled wounded into Lianyun Mountain, a place riddled with danger, every extra moment there meant an extra measure of risk.
Anxiety gnawing at him, the Sixth Elder’s mind sparked, and the sword energy of the Taiji Bagua Array instantly gathered into a golden giant several zhang [1]a traditional unit of length, roughly 3.3 meters jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015889_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015889_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); tall, the giant gripping its magic sword and hacking down at one of the black-robed men with unstoppable, thunderous force.
That black-robed man was Old Ghost, at late Golden Core cultivation.
Old Ghost channeled his full spiritual energy, trying to block this blow, but as the sword energy came bearing down on him, his eyes widened in shock, his body frozen in place, feeling only an overwhelming, unstoppable force crashing down on him.
Seeing this, two nearby black-robed men swiftly cast a spell to form a protective barrier to try to save Old Ghost, but the sword energy, as though capable of destroying heaven and earth itself, shattered their spiritual-energy barrier in an instant and continued straight on toward Old Ghost.
In the blink of an eye, Old Ghost was split cleanly in two, the remaining surge of sword energy sending a ringing shock through everyone’s ears, as if the blood in their bodies might burst straight out from the crown of their heads.
The Lanshan Sword Technique was the founding sword art of the sect, its reputation widely known throughout the outside world, having once shaken all six regions. The reason for this could be summed up in two words:
—Unbeatable.
Once cultivated to the fourth tier, the Lanshan Sword Technique could transform sword energy into an array, trapping the enemy entirely within its bounds. The Taiji Bagua Sword Array was the deadliest move within the Lanshan Sword Technique, one might even call it a killing move. This array was controlled by whoever activated it, the formation shifting according to their will. One could say that once inside this array, if the one who set it had deep enough cultivation, killing enemies would be as easy as slaughtering chickens and dogs.
But this array had one flaw.
Activating it consumed an enormous amount of spiritual energy. If one’s cultivation wasn’t high enough, it could easily be broken by the enemy. Moreover, since the array’s power emanated from the magic sword itself, the magic sword was the foundation, if the magic sword were too low-grade, the Unbeatable Bagua Sword Array couldn’t be sustained for very long.
To compensate for this flaw, the Lanshan Sword Technique had, through reforms by successive generations of sect masters, evolved into a technique jointly cast by two people forming the array together.
The previous generation’s Xianhao Sect Master had only three disciples.
The first was the current Sect Master, Lan Xue.
The second was the Sixth Elder, Lan Yang.
The last was the Seventh Elder, Lan Yue.
Lan Xue primarily cultivated the Merciless Path, unsuited to practicing this technique, while the Sixth Elder and Seventh Elder had both been personally brought back from outside by the previous Sect Master, entering the sect one after the other, growing up together, their hearts perfectly attuned to one another. Casting the Taiji Bagua Sword Array required the two casters to share deep understanding and mutual rapport, with matched cultivation levels, so the previous Sect Master had only ever taught this technique to the Sixth Elder and Seventh Elder.
The sword array consumed a great deal of spiritual energy, so on ordinary days, unless truly forced into a corner, the Sixth Elder and Seventh Elder rarely cast it carelessly.
Disciples within the sect had only ever heard of this array, never actually witnessed it with their own eyes. Now, seeing the terrifying pressure radiating through midair, waves of golden light, sword energy flickering like bolts of lightning within the array, its overwhelming majesty on full display, the disciples were bursting with excitement.
“Is this… is this the Taiji Bagua Sword Array?”
“So powerful, that Golden Core cultivator was crushed to death by the sword array the instant he got trapped.”
“Of course it’s powerful. Did you think our sect’s Lanshan Sword Technique was just empty bragging by outsiders?” one disciple said, putting on a knowledgeable air.
“The Sixth Elder just hasn’t shown his hand in so long, everyone started treating him like a pushover.”
“I’d never seen it before, so I always figured it was exaggerated.”
“You just haven’t seen enough. Don’t underestimate this array, once you’re trapped inside it, you’ll understand exactly what you’re up against.”
“I wish I could learn this technique too.”
The Sixth Elder, fighting off six opponents at once within the array, still seemed to be handling it with apparent ease, and the disciples watched with envy.
“This sword technique can only be taught to personally taken disciples. Don’t go dreaming in broad daylight.”
The disciples gathered at the bow of the ship, watching with excited fervor, and seeing the Sixth Elder effortlessly cleave a mid-Golden Core black-robed man clean in half, countless waves of awe and admiration surged through their hearts.
Xu Yifan caught wind of all this, listening as everyone praised the Taiji Bagua Sword Array as if it were something matchless in heaven and unrivaled on earth.
He’d seen references to this sword technique in books back in the secret realm.
The technique really was quite formidable, if cultivated to great perfection, it could even summon a manifestation of one’s Dharma form [2]a cultivator’s projected spiritual avatar, manifesting their power in physical form jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015889_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015889_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
With two people casting the array, each summoning their own Dharma form, that would make four in total.
Four figures jointly guarding the four cardinal directions, north, south, east, and west, and the array would become as solid as bedrock, utterly unbreakable.
Xu Yifan poked his head out the window to look outside.
Lightning flashed and thunder rolled across the sky, the fighting raging fiercely.
At first glance, the black-robed men already seemed to be losing badly, beaten by the Sixth Elder with no way to fight back. At one glance, Xu Yifan too thought the situation seemed secure, but at the second glance, he knew things were about to go badly.
His broke-ass master might be a Golden Core powerhouse, quite a formidable figure even within the Southern Region, but the magic sword he was using was, of all things, a low-tier second-grade magic sword.
With such a shoddy magic sword, the array’s overall power had already been cut down by a good forty percent. The enemy had numbers on their side, though individually none of them could match his master, combined their strength was nothing to underestimate either. This sword array, and his master along with it, probably couldn’t hold out much longer.
Xu Yifan grew increasingly anxious, but the other disciples, being neither artifact refiners nor knowledgeable in such matters, had no idea about any of this, still chattering away excitedly, completely unafraid.
References[+]