Chapter 229 Old Bastard, Hiss—
Roaring—
Spiritual fire surged into the sky, illuminating the thick dark clouds overhead, like a newly born Golden Crow, completely dispersing the night color for hundreds of li. The accumulated snow on the Qiong Peak snow-capped peak, which had been there for a hundred years, was scattered into the sky by the impact. What followed was a sudden outbreak of lava and blazes, which instantly ignited all the trees in the ten li snow forest.
Boom—
Ten streaks of spiritual light suddenly appeared in the mountains. Zhuang Yan, panting heavily, knocked away all the rock fragments pressing on him, then jumped out from within the mountain. He summoned his flying sword and hovered in mid-air. His golden-white dao robe now had several scorched holes, and his neatly tied hair had become disheveled.
“Ahhh—”
“Help…”
Several Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators were burned all over, but they were still alive. They were now pinned down by flying rubble, patting their hands and struggling while shouting. However, Zhuang Yan had no intention of lending a hand, his eyes cold and merciless.
Looking at the lava continuously gushing out of the mountain body under his feet, Zhuang Yan gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw bulged. Then, he waved his long sleeve and released his spiritual sense, trying to find the person who had just thrown the water spirit pearl and the whereabouts of Yun Jiujiu and Yun Yiyi. But unfortunately, the spiritual fire all over the mountain prevented his spiritual sense from being utilized.
“Tsk…”
Zhuang Yan raised his left hand and pulled down his sleeve, revealing his left arm, which was already scorched beyond recognition. He spread his five fingers, and a dark, round pill with silver-white cracks slowly floated up in his palm. This was the malevolent pill he had desperately reached into the furnace to salvage before it completely exploded.
Zhuang Yan had spent decades researching methods to reshape the physical body, and then spent nearly twenty years gathering the necessary Heavenly Treasures from all over the Heavenly Domain, all to create a body for his personal disciple, Yun Kunwu. However, due to a minor oversight, due to two insignificant beings, it all turned to nothing.
“Elder Zhuang—save…”
“Hah—!”
Zhuang Yan roared, waved his long sleeve, and used his spiritual energy to control the dozens of gold spirit long swords floating around him, shooting them at a Core Formation Stage cultivator below who was reaching out to him for help.
Swish—Swish—
Several sounds of flesh being pierced rang out. The cultivator whose right shoulder was pinned by a giant rock was instantly turned into a hedgehog by his gold spirit long swords, and his soul dispersed without further movement.
“Ha—*wheeze*—”
Zhuang Yan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then pointed his finger to retrieve the ten spirit swords. After a while, he managed to calm the bulging veins on his forehead and regained his composure. He then looked again at the malevolent pill in his left palm. He did not have another sixty-year cycle to re-refine this malevolent pill for Yun Kunwu. Moreover, with such a large commotion, he could no longer appear as an Elder in the Moon Shadow Sword Sect.
“Kunwu… your master…”
—”Yo, isn’t this Elder Zhuang? What a coincidence.”
!
Suddenly, a woman’s playful voice spoke from behind Zhuang Yan. His eyes slightly widened, and he immediately put the malevolent pill in his hand into his storage bag with a pill bottle and turned around to look.
The woman in white leaned against her flying sword, holding a Jade Gourd in her hand. She took a big gulp, and the wine gathered at the corner of her mouth, then dripped onto her chin, and then down into her collar, crossing the deep cleavage between her breasts.
“Hu Tianyue…”
Zhuang Yan’s eyes were wary, and he couldn’t help but feel a sense of doubt. Traveling from Central Peak to here by flying sword would take at least half an hour, even at top speed. Yet, it had only been a quarter of an hour since the furnace exploded, and Hu Tianyue had already arrived…
Hu Tianyue raised her hand and summoned a green jade spiritual sword from her storage bag. She stood up and complained, “Just now, the Third Miss rushed into my cave dwelling and kicked me out of bed, telling me someone climbed into her bed in the middle of the night. I figured it wasn’t a big deal, probably just some second or third-rate thugs, but it seems this is no small matter now…”
“… …”
“Coincidentally, I’ve never sparred with Elder Zhuang before.” Hu Tianyue raised her jade sword and raised her eyebrows. “Shall we have a go?”
“Heh! Utterly arrogant!! Hu Tianyue, you junior dare to speak to me like this?”
Zhuang Yan sneered, immediately grabbed a spirit sword by his side, and glared with his eyes wide open.
“Whether I’m arrogant or not, we’ll know when we try.”
Hearing this, Hu Tianyue’s face lost its earlier relaxed demeanor. She became serious and took out her Natal Magical Artifact from her storage bag. Although the gap in their cultivation was not large, both were at the Nascent Soul mid-stage. In a fight between cultivators of the same realm above Nascent Soul, it all came down to their foundation. In other words, whoever had more powerful magical artifacts had a greater chance of winning. Facing Zhuang Yan, Hu Tianyue estimated her chances of winning were only forty percent. However, as long as she was not careless, it would be wishful thinking for Zhuang Yan to shatter her Nascent Soul. She only needed to hold on until other elders arrived. No matter how strong Zhuang Yan was, he would never be able to defeat the combined attack of several Nascent Soul cultivators. Zhuang Yan exhaled a breath of spiritual energy and gripped the spirit sword in his hand.
Boom—
The air wave exploded in mid-air with a loud bang. Zhuang Yan’s figure flickered, transforming into a stream of light, and he shot directly in the opposite direction of Hu Tianyue, disappearing hundreds of feet in an instant.
“… …”
“Hiss—You old bastard, damn it!!”
Hu Tianyue blinked and was stunned for a moment before she realized she had been tricked by old man Zhuang. She immediately took a deep breath, held the jade sword in her hand, and also transformed into a stream of light, chasing after Zhuang Yan.
…
—
Thunderclap—
The chase between the two Nascent Soul cultivators created arcs of lightning between the clouds, making the fluttering snowflakes in the sky flicker between white and dark. On the mountainside of Qiong Peak, Zhang Yihe and Pei Lianxue were each holding a shovel, digging furiously at the snow at their feet.
Swish—
Pei Lianxue’s shovel suddenly seemed to have hit something. The next moment, a miserable cry came from beneath the snow.
—”Ouch!!!”
Pei Lianxue paused and quickly waved at Zhang Yihe, who was shoveling snow on the other side, saying, “Found her.”
“Coming, coming—”
Zhang Yihe also did not dare to delay. He ran over with his shovel and carefully shoveled away the snow in front of Pei Lianxue, pulling out Yun Xi from below. Just now, when the spiritual fire surged into the sky, a giant rock was lifted by the impact and directly smashed Yun Xi, who was flying on her sword, from the sky. Hu Tianyue seemed to think she wouldn’t die, so she asked Pei Lianxue and Zhang Yihe to dig her out while she went to check the situation directly above the spiritual fire.
Yun Xi, who had been rescued, looked at Zhang Yihe with a contorted expression: “Zhang Yihe!!! I—”
“Hey—Third Miss, this isn’t my fault. I did remind you when that rock flew over. Neither Pei Lianxue nor I were hit.”
Yun Xi’s eyes twitched. The rock that had flown over had hit her face. It was only then that Zhang Yihe belatedly shouted, “Third Miss, watch out for flying rocks!!” But there was no use in scolding him now. She quickly stood up, took out bandages from her storage bag, and bandaged the wound on her head that Pei Lianxue had poked with her shovel, causing blood to spurt. After taking a pill, she looked up at the sky. Seeing the flickering lightning above the clouds, she felt a sense of foreboding. However, she was also very fortunate that she had followed Pei Lianxue’s suggestion and found Hu Tianyue to accompany them.
“*Wheeze*—” Yun Xi let out a breath and said, “Let’s go!! To collect corpses!”
“Ah?” Zhang Yihe paused, not understanding what she meant. “Third Miss, collect what corpses?”
“The corpses of my two stinky sisters! Damn it, I hope they’re dead. Once they’re dead, I’ll be the Sect Master! Humph~”
Yun Xi cursed and kicked a pile of snow in front of her.
Bang—
Unexpectedly, there was a stone in the snow pile, and she gasped in pain, then squatted down trembling, clutching her foot and crying.
Seeing this, Zhang Yihe asked, “Third Miss, do you really think that? Eldest Miss and Second Miss are dead…”
“Why do you care what I think?” Yun Xi, with two large tears rolling down her cheeks, glared at him. “Go!! Go dig them out, dead or alive, we must dig them out.”
… …
