In her original plan, she was supposed to let the flying needle get a bit closer, as that would be more likely to force A-Yue to reveal a slip.
However, when the needle’s tip was still three feet away from that figure, the fear that had tortured her day and night for twenty years suddenly took over her entire body, leaving her unable to control herself from stepping forward.
Even though everything was within her grasp, and even though the flying needle would not truly pierce between her brows to shatter her soul, she still trembled uncontrollably.
Even a slight possibility was enough to make her utterly terrified and deeply despise herself.
After half a lifetime of long waiting, all that remained of her now was a high-and-mighty, sanctimonious skin, while her insides had long been devoured to empty husks by the gu-worm named obsession.
Yet the person behind her, even having lost her former cultivation, could still draw her sword from its scabbard with a mortal body, standing unyielding under the heavy pressure of a Jindan cultivator.
With such extraordinary talent, she wouldn’t need to wait another twenty years; she would surely rise to fame across the world just as she always had.
In contrast, how much longer was someone as despicable and shameless as herself worthy of standing by her side?
The black mist deliberately suppressed within her spiritual sea suddenly expanded. For a split second, as Jiang Xingxuan gazed at her old acquaintance holding the old sword, an evil thought she had never harbored before flickered in her mind.
Confine her early. Only I can be by A-Yue’s side; only I can have her.
Then there would be no question of whether I am worthy or not.
“Master.”
Wrapped in that gradually darkening gaze, it felt as though she were submerged in a exceptionally beautiful yet immensely deep cold pool.
She should have felt fear, yet amid a faint sense of suffocation, Cong Jinyue realized that even if she sank to the bottom a thousand feet down, her heart would remain just as calm and at peace.
Just a moment ago, in the gap between life and death, she had turned her eyes one last time. Her gaze, devoid of any intense demand, passed over the panicked disciples and landed on that striking, glamorous figure crouching on the tiger’s back.
Jiang Xingxuan had left a mark on her palm and promised to protect her, but back then, it seemed as though she had already exhausted all her strength.
In all fairness, Cong Jinyue harbored no resentment toward this.
Although they were master and disciple in name, they had met as strangers after all, without any deep affection or bond. She did not expect Jiang Xingxuan to overcome all odds to step forward for her.
She placed her hopes only on herself, which was why she had resisted the immense pressure to raise her sword unyieldingly.
Yet Jiang Xingxuan had truly come before her.
From that moment on, she began to trust her.
These two words of call were like the break of dawn, scattering the thick mist in the bright and stunning Daoist Lord’s eyes.
Jiang Xingxuan raised her hand abruptly, her fingertips trembling slightly. Restraining an inexplicable urge, after struggling for a moment, she merely let her hand slide along Cong Jinyue’s wrist down to the palm covered by the indelible cinnabar mark.
Her lips parted slightly, and in the end, she only let out four words in a hoarse voice alongside the chime of the bell under her ear: “Wait for me here.”
I will avenge you at all costs.
Just please, do not disappear again.
“Okay, Master, be careful.” The old friend, who had forgotten her past and whose face had slightly altered, showed a expression of worry that hadn’t changed in the slightest.
In this instant, Jiang Xingxuan felt as though she were the only one who had slept through the years, living out a grand dream.
If that were truly the case, was this a sweet dream, or a nightmare?
The answer was shrouded in mystery. Perhaps it could only be washed clean by tears and wiped with blood before she could touch and comprehend its true meaning.
In that case, let her first use her enemy’s blood to sacrifice to the long sword, inform the departed souls, and manifest it before heaven, earth, and all living beings.
With a thought, the soul restriction snapped! Five streams of dense demonic energy surged forth like black dragons breaking from the sea, flying in from all directions of the Instrument Tomb. They merged into one at the apex of the spell boundary, forming a sharp, massive halberd that slashed down with shield-shattering force!
To a Foundation Building cultivator, this blow was swift and powerful, but to Jiang Xingxuan, it was as slow as a snail or an ox, even carrying a touch of childish clumsiness.
Jiang Xingxuan had originally considered letting these five demonic cultivators go. After all, fundamentally speaking, they were merely controlled in their souls by her and brought into the sect; they had no intention of invading or attacking in the first place.
However, now that she had released the soul restraint and granted these demonic cultivators their freedom, they proved to be recklessly foolish, insisting on committing atrocities within the sect and attempting to reap the lives of young disciples. In that case, they had only themselves to blame.
Spiritual power belonging to an immortal cultivator circulated instantly. The crimson sword originally held in Cong Jinyue’s hand answered the call, flying out and landing into Jiang Xingxuan’s palm without the slightest resistance.
Holding the red sword in her front hand and the black sword in her back hand, she chanted softly alongside the two blades: “A-Yue, the Nine Stances of Fushuan, the First Stance.”
In her murmur, Jiang Xingxuan bent her arm and swung the sword, looking not like an immortal sect elder capable of commanding wind and rain, but like an anonymous stranger walking alone through the dark night.
The edge swept across like holding a candle to survey the surroundings, as if at the place where the sun sets, illuminating the lost divine tree of green leaves and red flowers with a tiny spark.
Though the candlelight was weak, it was enough to tear apart the gloom.
Myriads of firelight emerged from the crimson blade, soaring upward with the wind and colliding head-on with the heavy demonic halberd!
The swaying lights floated, yet with an invincible momentum, they completely swallowed the dense demonic energy!
Exclamations of awe rang out from all around, but Jiang Xingxuan remained unmoved. She merely tilted her head with a smile, carrying a persistent obsession that had remained unchanged for twenty years, looking toward the only person in the world who could move her heart: “This stance is called Glory of Ruomu.”
“Jiang! Xing! Xuan!” A hoarse voice came from the end of the demonic energy, carrying endless hatred and fury, “Today, I will surely kill you!”
“Disperse!” At a command from high above, the five streams of demonic energy dispersed upon hearing it, with four black-robed demonic cultivators forming a mutually supportive formation.
One demonic cultivator stood firmly in the center. Her face was actually covered by a yellow jade mask; the corners of her eyes drooped, yet the corners of her mouth curled upward, creating a bizarre expression that was neither joy, sorrow, nor fear.
She summoned a bone sword burning with eerie fire and shouted sternly: “Form the array!”
Chilling nether flames seemed to crawl out from the underworld, flickering with an eerie ink-green light that overpowered the five-colored spiritual light within the Instrument Tomb.
Like an inescapable, sweeping net, it blanketed the area and attacked Jiang Xingxuan!
Yet the gorgeously smiling Daoist Lord turned a blind eye to it, still staring at that one person, her eyes filled with deep affection, her voice tender and soft: “Second Stance, Reflections on Fusang.”
She merely took a single step forward, as if taking a casual stroll, yet it felt as though she had crossed countless spaces from west to east, observed all facets of the mortal world, personally measured the entire mortal realm, and finally arrived at the Eastern Extremity Tang Valley where the sun rises.
She lifted the sword tip like picking at a lantern while drunk, and then thrust the tip outward, as if using the fire of a firefly to ignite the sun sleeping atop the divine tree.
A single spark instantly set the prairie ablaze; fierce flames burst into the sky in an instant, illuminating mountains and rivers, leaving nowhere for foulness to hide.
How could ink-green nether flames compete with orange-red heavenly light?
The airtight, lethal array net immediately dimmed, shattering piece by piece, instantly dissipating within the ten-thousand-fathom firelight.
“This spiritual power—Late Jindan Great Perfection?!” The masked demonic cultivator said in disbelief. “Twenty years?!”
Her eyes darkened and she gritted her teeth, contemplating silently for a moment before summoning a black-and-white soul banner out of thin air: “Even so, I will still kill you!”
Even if her enemy possessed extraordinary talent, she herself was now at the mid-Jindan stage. With her full effort combined with the joint array activated by her subordinates, she refused to believe they couldn’t make this damned enemy’s soul shatter into pieces!
Otherwise, if she failed to kill this person now, she feared she would never have another chance to personally take her revenge in the future!
The four demonic cultivators summoned four small black-and-white flags accordingly. All five of them unleashed their soul banners at the same time, driving tens of thousands of resentful souls to leap out using demonic energy.
The screeching that shredded the three souls and the malice that corroded the seven mortal spirits surged like a torrential flood, striking straight toward Jiang Xingxuan!
“Third Stance.” Jiang Xingxuan still curled her lips into a smile, not sparing a single glance for the evil souls or the demonic cultivators. “Ash of Dust and Filth.”
She loosened her five fingers, yet the crimson sword did not fall to the ground. Instead, as if sharing her mind, it hung high in the air, moving according to her heart, its speed so fast it transformed into a line of scorching fire, plunging headlong into the deep, ten-thousand-soul array and charging left and right as if no souls were there.
Like a fearless warrior, it intended to use the sword as a torch to burn away all unfairness, injustice, and evil in the world, restoring a clear and peaceful mortal realm.
The resentful souls were still shrieking wildly, but listening closely, there was a bit less lingering hatred and a few more traces of relief.
The line of fire wove like thread, as if sewing up pain rather than repaying malice with malice.
Countless resentful souls tumbling with demonic energy actually shed their terrifying forms amid the light and dark, faintly showing signs of breaking free from the soul banners’ confinement to enter the cycle of reincarnation!
“How dare you!” The masked demonic cultivator’s eyes nearly split open. She immediately bit the tip of her tongue and spat out a mouthful of essence blood to reinforce the restriction, pointing her finger down toward the pale yellow spell boundary!
She couldn’t do anything to her enemy for the moment, but could she not even break a protective array built by mere ants?!
If she could slaughter this group of young immortal sect sprouts, it would still be a great achievement, enough to relieve the Sect Master’s worries, and perhaps she might even enter the Spirit-Transformation Advancement Array to gain another fortune.
Besides, she didn’t believe an elder of this sect could stand by and watch her disciples fall right before her eyes—the juniors inside the array were Jiang Xingxuan’s weakness!
And once a person had a weakness, they had flaws and a fatal vulnerability.
Under the control of the one-eyed demonic cultivator, tens of thousands of resentful souls turned like demonic dragons diving into the sea, striking directly at the fragile, paper-thin Scale Armor Defense Array!
Yue Tongxiu was horrified. He immediately forced the last of his spiritual power out of his spiritual sea, pouring it entirely into the array he was maintaining, intending to risk everything to block this blow!
Amid everyone’s shock and fear, another sword chime echoed out, sounding like a dragon’s roar or a crane’s cry!
Like the final masterwork into which an ink-artist poured a lifetime of effort, the crimson sword rotated at high speed within pure spiritual energy, slashing out countless silk-like sword lights in an instant.
It was like the core of a flame brightening to its absolute extreme, no longer a vibrant red like fire, but transformed into the clear, plain light of a full moon hanging in the night sky.
Like water and silver, cleansing the four seas!
The dark, resentful souls were wiped out in a single sweep by the white flame, finally gaining liberation. Even the large and small soul banners in the hands of the demonic cultivators shattered in an instant, completely turning to ashes.
Standing at the center of the sword light, Jiang Xingxuan possessed a graceful posture. Her long eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she gave Cong Jinyue a bright smile: “Fourth Stance, Cleansing the Eight Realms.”
“Protector!” A demonic cultivator spoke with a trembling voice, “Daoist Lord Wangshu lives up to her reputation. Let’s run!”
Another demonic cultivator agreed: “Yes, yes! As long as the green hills remain, there’s no fear of lacking firewood!”
“How dare you, cowards!” The masked demonic cultivator scolded angrily, “If we don’t slay her here today, do you think we’ll have any way to live from now on?!”
The two demonic cultivators looked at each other and retreated swiftly in opposite directions: “Protector, we’re sorry!”
They had cultivated desperately and finally formed their golden cores with great difficulty. Even if they fled from battle, they could still find a demonic sect to become an elder, so they cherished their lives exceptionally and were completely unwilling to throw them away here.
“You lot!” Seeing this, the masked demonic cultivator was furious. She immediately flicked her fingers, sending two black needles glowing with eerie light flying toward the backs of their heads, “Seeking death!”
However, faster than the poisonous needles was a rolling heatwave, so hot that space itself seemed to warp for a moment!
Extremely intense and fierce, enough to boil the sea!
Every breath of air those two demonic cultivators took was like magma. Their internal organs were like dry wood and withered grass, easily set ablaze.
The steel-and-iron bodies of dignified Jindan demonic cultivators actually turned to ashes from the inside out!
“Fifth Stance.” Jiang Xingxuan was still gazing at Cong Jinyue, as if tracing an old dream she had never forgotten since her youth. “Boiling the Sea.”
The masked demonic cultivator trembled due to this dominant stance. After her turbid eyeballs rolled a few times, her bit of panic was replaced by endless hatred.
With a decisive expression, she opened her mouth and spat out a long shield that encircled her body, then summoned a short dagger, cutting the throats of the other two demonic cultivators with one slash and stabbing her own heart meridian with another!
Almost all the blood of the three Jindan demonic cultivators was extracted thread by thread, slowly merging into one, and gradually condensing into a dark red long sword!
“Why do you hate me so much?” Jiang Xingxuan did not interrupt her gathering strength, nor did she even turn her head; she merely raised her eyebrows slightly.
The blood of these demonic cultivators was extremely poisonous and filthy, clearly having consumed low doses of Soul Shattering Powder daily. Thus, this blood sword was also exceedingly sinister and evil, enough to pierce through the protective spiritual energy of a Nascent Soul Immortal Lord.
Even if it could only leave a scratch, it would be enough to destroy the soul and erode the spirit, severely injuring a Nascent Soul Immortal Lord or even causing them to perish.
However, once this technique was used, the caster would also have no way to live—it was a desperate, mutual-destruction trump card.
“Why?!”
The masked demonic cultivator clutched the fabric over her heart, looking as if she were in unbearable agony: “Twenty years ago! Qingshen Cave! You! Killed my younger sister!”
“Who was she?”
Jiang Xingxuan’s eyes were half-closed. She seemed to think for a moment to no avail, then curled her lips into a smile—her face gorgeous, her voice gentle, yet her words were utterly ruthless:
“My apologies. This Lord killed far too many people that day, so I really don’t remember which one you’re referring to.”
She let out a soft sigh, as if asking the masked demonic cultivator, or perhaps asking herself: “However, it’s been twenty years… have you still not been able to let it go?”