Chapter 31 - 28: The Fairy’s Smooth and Tender Skin
The woman in black robes said, "The sword is of no interest to me. I’m just here to look for promising recruits. By the way, Xue Yanluo, did you know? The great True Inheritor of Miao Yu Palace, Xia Lianxue, is now obeying a man with zero cultivation, like a submissive little wife. Look at that pitiful expression. If we were to bring her into my sect... oh, I can’t even imagine."
She sneered and added, "What do you think a Righteous Dao Fairy sounds like in bed?"
Xue Yanluo said coldly, "If you’re so interested, go investigate yourself. Don’t come here to get your thrills."
Seeing that Xue Yanluo was completely ignoring her, the woman in black robes chuckled softly. A White Jade Ribbon emerged from her hand, shooting straight for the Illusion Sword in the lake.
BOOM!!!
The woman in black robes coughed up a mouthful of blood. "What powerful Thought!"
"The Sword Thought you just felt is less than a thousandth of the power this sword uses to suppress the Great Demon," Xue Yanluo sneered. "If this sword were so easy to claim, why would I have waited here for an entire day and night?"
The woman in black robes gritted her teeth. "Why didn’t you say so earlier?"
"And deny myself the pleasure of seeing you look so pathetic?"
"Tch! You Yin Yang Person."
Xue Yanluo’s fingers moved, forming a hand seal as gracefully as a weeping willow. A sigil materialized out of thin air. "That Great Demon can’t wait to get out. The sword can no longer suppress it."
When the breach first opened, the longsword at the lake’s center was still ethereal. Now, however, it had almost completely solidified.
An ethereal sword meant all its Thought was being used to seal the Great Demon. But a solidifying sword meant the seal was being overwhelmed, forcing the sword’s Thought to retreat back into the blade.
The moment the sword fully solidifies will be the moment the Great Demon is unleashed upon the world.
The woman in black robes’ voice was grave. "Xue Yanluo, are you really going to let that Demon out? If we anger the Daoist Sect and they decide to purge the world of demons again, do you think either of us will be spared?"
Xue Yanluo looked calmly at the woman in black robes. "Mei, considering our sects share some history, I won’t hold your actions against you, and I won’t raise a hand to you. But if you continue to make a mess of things, then this ends today in a fight to the death."
"Ooh, I’m so very scared."
This woman in black, Mei, didn’t seem afraid of Xue Yanluo in the slightest.
"And let me tell you this," she retorted, "if your mother didn’t have some connection to my sect, I wouldn’t even deign to speak to you... What was that!?"
Bursts of Sword Qi suddenly erupted from the sword in the middle of the lake, sending out waves of ripples.
Piercing rays of sword light scattered indiscriminately in all directions, cleanly severing one of the dragon heads on the National Treasury.
The sword.
It was trembling!
SHREEE!
Ripples spread across the lake’s surface, before the water itself surged toward the heavens.
The white curtain fell, and billowing black Demonic Qi poured in. A crazed roar, a thousand years old, enveloped the entirety of the Upper Jade Capital.
The glazed lamps outside the National Treasury went out at once. Something like rain began to fall from the sky.
No.
It was the sound of something crumbling apart, an ear-piercing cracking that made Xue Yanluo’s heart pound with dread.
The woman in black robes reached out, catching a stone that had fallen from above.
A moment later, she screamed in terror, "This place... this place is the bottom of Liuqing Lake!!!"
The National Treasury of the Glazed Dynasty was actually at the bottom of Liuqing Lake!
To be more precise.
This space had been created at some unknown depth beneath Liuqing Lake.
KABENG.
Dozens of chains materialized from an unseen space. Golden runes and black Demonic Qi flowed along these chains, which coiled around the sword.
Following them to their source revealed that the Demon Suppression Chains were connected to something above.
Liuqing Lake actually had three layers!
The first layer was the lake itself. The second contained the Great Demon. The seal was hidden in the third layer, where the sword linked the Dragon Vein to the Demon Suppression Chains.
Xue Yanluo shouted, "The Demon Suppression Chains are revealed! The Great Demon is about to break free! Follow me, we’re taking the sword!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the chains, as if provoked by something, began to twist madly, emitting a piercing noise before snapping, inch by inch.
Xue Yanluo transformed into a streak of black and white energy and shot upward. "Hurry!"
Within the deep waters of the National Treasury, countless ethereal tentacles suddenly erupted, surging upward.
He had no time to think.
The sword was within arm’s reach.
The instant his hand touched the sword, all the chains shattered. In that same moment, it was as if the gates of the Netherworld had opened and its demons had come flooding out.
Corrupting sensations flooded his mind. Xue Yanluo coughed up a mouthful of blood, but still managed to seize the sword.
The sword’s lines were straight and solid, without excessive ornamentation. The only decoration was two words carved forcefully beneath the guard: Broken Thought.
The instant Xue Yanluo touched the sword, he felt his mind become clear and his cravings vanish. The Five Desires were forcefully suppressed.
He knew then that this sword was extraordinary. Its wielder could break through confusion, impervious to any Desire Demon.
"Hurry! This place is collapsing!"
The ceiling above them began to shake violently. Countless torrents of water poured down as if from the heavens, and for a moment, the world seemed to turn upside down.
The Five Desires burn the heart like a house ablaze; worldly corruption blinds the eyes like a hazy smog.
The heavens fell and the earth gave way.
The Great Demon was unleashed.
The entire Upper Jade Capital had been utterly transformed into a Demon Country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A black rain devoured the light, making it seem as if night had fallen prematurely.
Or perhaps, the day had simply grown later.
Wielding Xia Lianxue’s sword, Lu Changyuan sliced away the black aura clinging to a cultivator. The cultivator immediately collapsed, falling unconscious.
In just a few hours, Lu Changyuan had already found twenty trapped cultivators.
The Fairy’s sword didn’t feel right in his hands; his own was far easier to use. But Lu Changyuan’s sword had not yet been returned to him.
Xia Lianxue watched Lu Changyuan kick the cultivator into a nearby house with a look of distaste, then said softly, "Sir, it seems you hold Li Qingcao in high regard."
"I do admire him a lot. Do you know what the Qingcao Sword Sect’s motto is?"
Xia Lianxue shook her head. "Please enlighten me, Sir."
"Unless it’s changed, the motto of the Qingcao Sword Sect is: ’Live tenaciously in the grasslands, just like a blade of grass.’"
It was hard to imagine that the Qingcao Sword Sect, one of the Nine Gates and Twelve Palaces, would have such a motto.
Seeing Xia Lianxue’s confused expression, her delicate brows furrowed, Lu Changyuan smiled. "It’s alright if you don’t understand. You will in the future. The Qingcao Sword Sect is a very interesting Sect."
Xia Lianxue suddenly stopped walking. "Sir."
"What is it?"
"Shouldn’t we leave the Upper Jade Capital?"
"Why the sudden change of heart?" Lu Changyuan asked, still smiling. "Did seeing the Great Demon’s tentacles scare you a little?"
The Fairy gently tugged on the corner of Lu Changyuan’s sleeve. "Back on the boat, you asked me if I wanted the Pill, Sir. I said yes, and that’s why we stayed in White Jade Capital, right?"
"That’s right."
"But I’m no longer in a hurry to restore my Realm, and I’m not afraid of starting my cultivation over again."
Having broken through her mental block, recultivating her Realm would surely be a swift process. The Pill no longer seemed so important.
"Sir, it’s very dangerous here. We can leave. That Great Demon at the bottom of the lake can control corpses even while sealed. At the very least, it must be at the Sixth Realm. This place is too dangerous."
Xia Lianxue was gentle and kind and wanted to save people, but she was no fool. The situation before them had long since spiraled far beyond their initial expectations.
’You have to save yourself before you can save others.’
As if to prove her point, the sky suddenly turned pitch-black. A colossal black curtain slowly rose, and black ripples spread through the air.
Lu Changyuan turned back. He suddenly reached out and caressed Xia Lianxue’s cheek. The Fairy’s skin was smooth and soft, a touch that made one reluctant to let go. "Do you trust me?"