“M-Master?” Sleepiness vanished without a trace, and only then did Cong Jinyue realize how late it had grown.
Gazing at this breathtakingly beautiful face while hugging Mantou, who was still purring in her arms, she offered a somewhat guilty smile. “You’re back.”
It turned out it was her Master who had draped an outer garment over her just now.
Jiang Xingxuan had changed her attire at some unknown point. She was no longer dressed in vibrant scarlet, but instead looked as if she were draped in the heavy night sky. The tiny, shattered crystals embedded upon her robes sparkled with bits of light at her every movement.
She gave a soft murmur in response. At this moment, her face bore little trace of a smile, appearing exceptionally cold and captivating, like a quiet dream filled with a night sky of starlight.
She helped adjust Cong Jinyue’s collar and hair at her temples. Then, with her palm slightly cupped, she gently stroked Mantou’s belly: “Mantou, go to the dining hall and fetch us some dinner.”
Its sweet dream shattered, Mantou let out a yawn, stretched its two front paws far out in a giant lazy stretch, and only then leaped out of the red pavilion, bolting down the mountain.
Gazing at the cat receding into the distance, Jiang Xingxuan asked without betraying any emotion: “Did Mantou eat half of the pastries?”
The secret was exposed far too quickly, leaving Cong Jinyue with no choice but to admit it: “Yes… how did Master know? I soft-hearted for a moment and shared half with her.”
“There are some crumbs stuck to Mantou’s whiskers.”
Jiang Xingxuan gently stroked the side of Cong Jinyue’s cheek, using her thumb to wipe something away, before finally letting out a helpless smile: “I knew it. I really can’t do anything with the two of you.”
With this smile of hers, even the stars suspended in the sky seemed to brighten by a notch.
Cong Jinyue smiled as well, taking the chance to act obedient: “Thank you, Master. The pastries were delicious.”
“Come with me.” Jiang Xingxuan took her hand to lead her back inside the room. Withdrawing her smile, she said with a solemn expression: “Ah-Yue, after thinking it over, I still feel it would be safest to draw a Locating Teleportation Talisman on your body.”
Perhaps fearing she might not agree, Jiang Xingxuan explained further: “Tonight, over a thousand new and veteran disciples will gather at the Sword Tomb. If any danger arises, I will be able to rush to your side in time.”
She looked closely at Cong Jinyue and asked: “What do you think, Ah-Yue?”
Since it was for her safety, Cong Jinyue had no reason to refuse: “I will follow all of Master’s arrangements.”
Jiang Xingxuan did not act in a rush, instead, she carefully observed her expression, as if confirming that she was indeed entirely willing.
Only then did she select a fine brush at the desk, holding the brush in one hand and the inkstone in the other, before returning to stand in front of Cong Jinyue with a stern expression:
“Ah-Yue, drawing this talisman on your palm yields the best effect.”
Upon hearing this, Cong Jinyue turned her palm upward: “I will trouble Master, then.”
Jiang Xingxuan placed the inkstone to the side, freeing up a hand to gently cup the back of Cong Jinyue’s hand.
Her expression was intensely focused. As she lowered her head and bowed slightly at this moment, even this ordinary movement took on an air of devotion, as though what she held in her hands was not a disciple’s palm, but a brilliant pearl lost and found again.
After a few beats of silence, she dipped the tip of the brush deep into the cinnabar liquid and began to draw the talisman.
The tip of the brush, saturated with red fluid, touched down on Cong Jinyue’s skin with a slightly cool sensation. As the strokes flowed, every line and brushmark stirred up a subtle, ticklish feeling, like a feather brushing past.
Perhaps because she had reached a crucial point in the script, Jiang Xingxuan leaned in inch by inch. Her long eyelashes were dense, and her breath was warm, carrying a faint scent of magnolia.
The cool cinnabar fluid tracing her palm lines suddenly felt as if it had been ignited.
Just as Cong Jinyue’s fingertips trembled slightly from the heat, the crisp sound of a wooden box dropping to the floor echoed from the doorway.
Cong Jinyue turned her head to look back, only to see a large, fluffy head abruptly pull back behind the door, followed by a black-and-white tail coiling around the door ring, shutting the door with a loud clack.
It was the very picture of avoiding an improper sight.
The heat from her palm climbed up to her cheeks, making Cong Jinyue look at Jiang Xingxuan despite herself.
Jiang Xingxuan had not been disturbed by Mantou at all. Her expression remained calm and her gaze candid, though the color of her eyes had turned slightly redder, her lips a fraction paler, and the tip of her brush trembled ever so faintly.
Drawing this talisman was clearly no easy task.
Cong Jinyue moved her five fingers slightly, momentarily wanting to speak up to ask Jiang Xingxuan to set down the brush and take a break. Right at that moment, as if in telepathic sync, Jiang Xingxuan lifted her brush and let out a sigh:
“There, Ah-Yue. Once you finish your dinner, we shall set off.”
The food box Mantou had fetched back was packed to the brim with all sorts of meat dishes, without a single speck of green, obviously selected entirely according to its own tastes.
Over the past few days, Cong Jinyue had mostly eaten Inedia Pills while traveling with that squad of disciples, which merely kept her stomach full.
This meal before her, full of color, aroma, and flavor, was the most lavish spread she had enjoyed since waking up. Though she did not wolf it down, she still cleared everything within the span of half an incense stick, doing full justice to Mantou’s good intentions.
Having eaten and drunk her fill, the two stepped out into the courtyard. Mantou had already reverted to its true form, expertly scooping Cong Jinyue onto its back before letting out a wild roar and dashing forward like an arrow.
Tiger claws bounded through the bamboo forest, and its tiger head pushed aside jade-like branches, until the scene before Cong Jinyue suddenly opened up wide.
Silver moonlight poured down, flowing across the high-spirited figures of several thousand disciples, illuminating their dashing vitality and bright eyes.
They were crowded together before a dark, secluded cave, following the instructions of a group of sword-bearing disciples as they entered in an orderly single-file line.
The disciple leading them possessed delicate features and held a long sword whose color resembled a golden lotus, she bowed from afar toward the two people and the tiger with clasped hands.
Cong Jinyue focused her gaze and realized that the person was none other than Senior Sister Yue Tongxiu, the leader who had brought her back to the sect.
“Greetings, Daoist Sovereign.” Yue Tongxiu stepped forward with a perfectly respectful smile, then looked toward Cong Jinyue: “Kind benefactor, today, I ought to call you ‘Junior Sister Cong’.”
Having spent time together along the journey, they were already somewhat acquainted. Mindful of Yue Tongxiu’s past care, Cong Jinyue smiled back and said: “Senior Sister Yue, thank you…”
She originally intended to exchange a few pleasantries, but Jiang Xingxuan took a step forward, blocking the view between the two of them. Her voice had lost some of its warmth alongside the setting sun and rising moon:
“Tongxiu, Ah-Yue owes her previous safety to your care. Today we still have important matters to attend to, we will visit Wenjian Peak another day to express our thanks.”
Between her words, Jiang Xingxuan had already assumed the role of a guardian. She immediately held Cong Jinyue’s hand with her right hand and led Mantou with her left, entering the cave alongside the crowd.
The cave mouth was only a few dozen feet wide, yet the interior spanned several hundred acres. Within it, five dazzling, eye-catching rays of spiritual light moved like living beings, between each breath, the five-colored light brightened and dimmed, extending out from the center of the Sword Tomb cave along the terrain toward all four directions, carving out five clearly demarcated areas.
“Kan-Water sits in the north, Li-Fire in the south,” Yue Tongxiu followed closely at the tail of the group into the cave, using her spiritual power to amplify her voice. “Dui-Metal guards the west, Zhen-Wood in the east, with Central-Earth stabilizing the eight extremes. Go seek your own opportunities!”
Upon hearing her words, the crowd scattered like birds and beasts.
Jiang Xingxuan leaned close to Cong Jinyue at this moment and said softly: “Ah-Yue possesses a Wood spiritual root right now, why not head east to explore first?”
“I must go to the north and south to retrieve our spiritual swords.” Jiang Xingxuan gently stroked the palm of her hand, reassuring her with a smile: “Don’t be afraid. When you need me, I will naturally rush to your side.”
Cong Jinyue was not particularly anxious, there were numerous disciples here, plus the primary disciple Yue Tongxiu guarding with her sword, so surely no one would dare to cause trouble.
She nodded in agreement: “Master, please go attend to your important business. Mantou and I will check out the east.”
“Good.” Jiang Xingxuan immediately concealed her trace, her lingering spiritual energy flowing like faint ink, ethereal and elegant.
Cong Jinyue brought the white tiger along, pushing aside the wild branches stretching out beside the Zhen-Wood area, only to behold a gigantic tree so thick it would take over a dozen people linking arms to encircle it.
Among its crisscrossing, interwoven root system, numerous weapons lay scattered upside down and sideways across it.
As Cong Jinyue’s gaze swept past those dust-covered swords, halberds, and battle-axes, just as she reached out to touch a peach-wood sword whose hilt had even sprouted tender shoots, she suddenly felt the surrounding air surge!
An object in the dark seemed to shoot out through the air, and a massive buzzing sound instantly erupted on all sides.
Panic-stricken cries also rang out from the other four elemental zones, a Kan-Water vortex suddenly emerged, Li-Fire heatwaves billowed skyward, Dui-Metal sharp weapons chimed sharply, and Central-Earth quicksand spread everywhere.
“Enemy attack!”
At the center of the Sword Tomb, Yue Tongxiu summoned her golden sword and barked an order at the top of her lungs: “Resisting-Sharpness Scales Array!”
The hundred-odd sword-bearing disciples centered around her rapidly formed an array. Driven by their hand seals, a translucent, bright-yellow spell array materialized within a mere three breaths, enveloping the numerous panicked and uneasy disciples inside.
Cong Jinyue looked up at the dome of the array. Beyond those waves of spiritual power, there were surprisingly over a hundred weapons of varying styles and different glows hovering in midair, attempting to breach the array’s defenses!
Meanwhile, inside the Five Elements zones, weapons were still approaching at extreme speeds.
Within just a few breaths, three to four hundred divine weapons and sharp armaments had already gathered outside the array!
These weapons scattered about, relentlessly slamming into the array, causing the edges of the barrier to tremble and fluctuate as its original pale-yellow light gradually dimmed.
The entire semi-circular array resembled a bubble on the verge of cracking open.
Yue Tongxiu and the disciples beside her gritted their teeth to maintain the formation, but strained expressions inevitably appeared on their faces, and some disciples’ footing had even turned unsteady.
The Sword Tomb covered an area comparable to a medium-sized town, under the sudden emergency just now, their ability to quickly form a large-scale array according to orders to protect all the disciples was already no small feat.
Facing such a fierce assault right now, they likely wouldn’t last half a cup of tea’s time.
Yue Tongxiu’s heart sank lower and lower, to simultaneously drive hundreds of masterless artifacts, aside from a Nascent Soul Immortal Lord, it would require the combined spellcasting of five or more Golden Core Daoist Sovereigns.
What was more, atop those artifacts and throughout the vast Sword Tomb, dark energy was faintly swirling.
When… when had a group of demonic cultivators snuck into the sect?!
Her own cultivation was merely at the Great Circle of the late Foundation Establishment stage, yet she was already the top cultivator among the disciples present. For them to withstand several demonic cultivators with power equivalent to Golden Core Daoist Sovereigns was no different from smashing an egg against a stone.
If the array shattered, what would the thousand disciples present, including herself, have to face?
Yue Tongxiu did not dare think further.
The sole silver lining amidst the misfortune was that within this hundred-acre Sword Tomb, there was one person who might be able to turn the tide.
But where is that person right now?
Taking a deep breath, Yue Tongxiu’s trembling hand pulled out a medicinal pill, preparing to swallow it down to overdraw her foundation to maintain the array, when out of the corner of her eye she suddenly saw the waters in the southern region surging wildly.
Amidst the turmoil, towering sprays of water cascaded backward like an inverted waterfall, and a figure shot out from the rapid vortex!
The dark surface of the water was whipped up by this intensely powerful wave of spiritual energy, splashing in all directions, yet the moment it was about to touch the hem of that person’s clothes, it was frozen solid into ice, forced to come to a helpless halt and transform into countless shooting stars drizzling downward.
The five-colored spiritual light inside the Sword Tomb flickered continuously. Under the refraction of these ice crystals filling the sky, atop the massive pale-yellow array, a ten-thousand-fathom heavenly rainbow unexpectedly arched across from the north to the south of the Sword Tomb.
Astride this brilliant longbow, that person stood proudly atop a streaming sword of light. With a flip of her hand, her spiritual energy poured forth in an instant, with a sweep of her palm, the ferocious weapons fell silent in a flash.
The erupting weapons that had required a hundred disciples joining forces just to barely resist were actually brought to a complete halt by this single strike of hers. Yet her posture remained effortless and serene, as if she had merely plucked a flower at leisure just now.
So graceful, so elegant, Cong Jinyue recognized her in a single glance.
That was her Master.