Chapter 66 - 63: Feng Xianlong
Ancestor Red Simurgh, already bearing Xia Lianxue’s face, affirmed excitedly, "Yes."
’Once the Little Fairy accepts that she deserves to die, she’ll begin to pass away, and this body will be mine.’
A soft yet steady voice sounded.
Xia Lianxue suddenly said, "I do deserve to die, but not at your hands."
Ancestor Red Simurgh froze for a moment, then recoiled in horror as Xia Lianxue slowly stood up, the wedding dress on her body vanishing.
Her Mind Confusion Technique had failed.
Xia Lianxue touched the space between her brows. It was the mark Lu Changyuan had left with the Supreme Pure Spirit Forget Immortal Technique. When her mind became unstable, it would automatically appear, safeguarding her Spirit Platform and keeping it clear for half a day.
The aura of the Time Path slowly began to permeate the air.
Before, Ancestor Red Simurgh had been hidden inside the painting, concealed so perfectly that Xia Lianxue had been completely unaware. But now that she had shown herself, Xia Lianxue could naturally trace this thread of Karma.
"You want to possess me?" Xia Lianxue’s expression was calm, as if she were discussing a matter that had nothing to do with her. "Even if you succeed, you’re still going to die."
Ancestor Red Simurgh shot to her feet. Her body began to grow incorporeal and expand until it nearly filled the entire grand hall.
She shrieked, "Your body..."
POP!
She deflated.
Ancestor Red Simurgh spat out a mouthful of blood as her body abruptly shrank. Crimson pus oozed from her seven orifices.
The backlash from the Heaven-Stealing Substitute Body Technique had come.
She stared into the distance in disbelief, toward the bridal chamber outside the illusory grand hall.
Xia Lianxue smiled gently. In Ancestor Red Simurgh’s miserable state, she could almost see Lu Changyuan’s faint, knowing smile.
’My Lord is really...’
Even though Lu Changyuan was certain Xia Lianxue would win, he had still given her a double layer of insurance.
’The feeling of being protected is truly intoxicating.’
Xia Lianxue narrowed her eyes slightly and reached out. Ancestor Red Simurgh was caught in her grasp. "During all those years in the void, it was this warmth that saw me through."
BANG!
Ancestor Red Simurgh, trapped tightly in mid-air, was unraveled layer by layer until she became mere ink-wash, dripping onto the ground with a dull patter.
Xia Lianxue was a gentle and lovely Fairy, but Xia Yutang, the Miao Yu Palace Master, was not.
Surely no one thought that the Miao Yu Palace Master—a woman who had survived a century of turmoil and secured Miao Yu Palace’s position among the Nine Gates and Twelve Palaces—was some cloyingly sweet Little Fairy who only knew how to cry out for her husband, right?
"My Lord says that those who reach the very peak of cultivation are all fanatics. I suppose that makes me a fanatic, too."
The Fairy’s tone was bright, as if she felt not the slightest shame in this.
"And what’s so bad about that?"
And so, the ink-wash receded, the surrounding Illusion Realm shattered, and she saw Lu Changyuan once more.
Lu Changyuan was sitting in one of the two chairs of honor at the head of the hall, watching her with a smile. At the sight of him, her heart felt warm and bright again.
Xia Lianxue said softly, "My Lord, she’s not dead yet."
Lu Changyuan nodded, not particularly surprised.
Those at the Yao Guang realm are hard to kill.
Xia Lianxue froze. "My Lord, you knew?"
"I had a rough idea."
’Su Youwan had no idea what the two of them were talking about. She just thought the couple was being ridiculously mushy, talking in riddles like that.’
Xia Lianxue looked outside the hall. "She’s coming. I’ll handle it. After all, I’m her target."
Someone had suffered a backlash, her plan for Possession had been utterly shattered, and now she was flying into a rage.
A skeleton flew out from the ink-wash. As the inky rain fell upon it, flesh grew on the white bones, and it finally transformed into a beautiful young Fairy.
A Cultivator of Miao Yu Palace’s Illusion Moon Dao, at the Sixth Realm Kai Yang: Han Lian Master!
No, at this moment, she should be called...
Ancestor Red Simurgh!
Lu Changyuan spoke coolly, "It seems your senior sister’s disappearance all those years ago was because she was consumed by the painting."
「Three hundred years ago.」
By this time, Xia Lianxue had already achieved the Yao Guang realm. Logically, it would be impossible for Ancestor Red Simurgh to possess her, so she had made other preparations.
Han Lian, who also cultivated the Illusion Moon Dao, was lured into the painting and met a miserable end. Ancestor Red Simurgh then kept Han Lian’s body as a backup.
Lu Changyuan raised his sword, and a hazy Sword Intent began to emanate from the blade.
"Hm?"
Strangely, Ancestor Red Simurgh didn’t fly toward the three of them. Instead, she rushed off into the distance.
BOOM!!!
~~~~~~~~~
A bolt of lightning struck down fiercely.
Jiang Jiayi sheathed her sword.
Golden bolts of the Thunder Tribulation rolled down from the sky. The wrath of the heavens swept over everything, tearing the clouds apart before finally striking the painting.
"The Painting Demon Technique?"
Years ago, Ancestor Red Simurgh had suppressed the Painting Demon, only to be invaded by it. In the end, she had managed to learn some of its skills.
Her ability to exist within a painting, and her use of the Illusion Moon Dao to create the painted scroll world—all of this was the result of her fusion with the Painting Demon over the past few thousand years.
Jiang Jiayi watched coolly as the terrifying Thunder Tribulation descended from the heavens.
Ancestor Red Simurgh had been barely hanging on for so long by evading the Celestial Dao. Now that she was injured and had revealed her true form, she was naturally being purged by it.
Her plan had been to possess Xia Lianxue before the Celestial Tribulation arrived, thereby tricking the Celestial Dao once more.
Unfortunately for her, she never stood a chance from the very beginning.
Whether it was the Chang’an Daoist, a natural counter to the Illusion Moon Dao; Xia Lianxue, who cultivated the Time Technique; or Jiang Jiayi, with her Innate Sword Body.
Any one of them could have reduced her scheme to nothing.
Ancestor Red Simurgh was finally annihilated beneath the earth-shattering Thunder Tribulation.
The distant painted scroll gradually shattered, and Miao Yu Palace returned to its place on the land. It was as if none of it had ever happened, leaving only the tranquil grand hall behind.
Jiang Jiayi sheathed her sword. ’It should be completely over now,’ she thought.
’It’s time for me to return to my mountain.’
’Too many things have happened on this trip.’
SCREECH!!!
Jiang Jiayi whipped her head around and looked up at the sky.
The Thunder Tribulation wasn’t over yet?!
After the golden lightning, blood-red lightning began to slowly form.
’Did someone else anger the Celestial Dao?’
’Who?’
Beside her, Qiu Yuehan suddenly cried out. The anklet she wore flared with light, and an ethereal shadow sighed as it slowly materialized and stepped out from within it.
Jiang Jiayi stared at the ethereal figure in disbelief.
"Feng Xianlong!?"
But even more shocked than her was Qiu Yuehan.
The anklet was a gift from her parents, but for as long as she could remember, she had been raised by the charity of her village before being sent to Miao Yu Palace for cultivation.
She had never met her parents.
The ethereal figure turned and gently caressed Qiu Yuehan’s face.
In that instant.
Qiu Yuehan finally understood what Han Shui Master had meant when she’d said, "You look just like the Palace Master did when she was young."
Han Shui Master hadn’t been talking about the Miao Yu Palace Master, but about Feng Xianlong, the last Palace Master of the Yuyue Immortal Palace.
She, Qiu Yuehan, was Feng Xianlong’s daughter!
"Feng Xianlong, you’re not dead?!"
The figure shook her head. "This is just a wisp of magic left behind by my mistress. It is not her."
Feng Xianlong was indeed dead, but she had left behind a sliver of her consciousness in her daughter’s anklet.