Chapter 426: Junior Sister, Frequent Good Things
Thousand li away—
A flying sword, carrying dark evil energy, hovered amidst countless sharp, cold snowflakes. The sound of clashing swords echoed for a hundred li.
In the eyes of the Ghost Spirit Sect disciple standing on the flying sword, a black-haired woman moved like a ghost through the ranks of their senior and junior brothers and sisters. The woman wore an azure blue Daoist robe, and in her hand was a spirit sword she had snatched from their senior brother.
Whoosh—
Amidst the cold snowflakes, ice-blue sword light scattered like a maelstrom. Countless severed limbs, trailing blood, danced around the woman like courtesans, resembling blooming red spider lilies. Yet, the woman herself was like a lotus growing among the spider lilies, exceptionally conspicuous and pure, her clothes unstained by even a drop of red.
“…”
She was clearly only a cultivator at the early Core Formation Stage! Yet, over twenty Ghost Spirit Sect disciples at the Core Formation Stage were like fish on a chopping block under her sword. They couldn’t even manage to tear her clothes.
Watching his senior brothers turn into dismembered corpses one after another under the woman’s sword; watching their spirit swords being continuously snatched by the woman, only to be used to cut down other senior brothers and sisters; the Ghost Spirit Sect disciple, frozen on his flying sword, trembled uncontrollably in his right hand. He was finally overwhelmed by the sight and screamed almost madly:
“What is this!!!”
The moment his voice reached the woman’s ears, her gaze instantly shifted towards him. Her orange eyes revealed a killing intent like that of a hungry wolf.
Next—
The woman stepped onto the back of a Ghost Spirit Sect disciple she had just cut in half, then transformed into a beam of light—
Swish—
In the blink of an eye, he felt as if the world had inverted, then was engulfed by a bloody hue, gradually fading into darkness.
Pei Lianxue landed on the peak of a desert dune, glanced behind her, then threw the spirit sword she had taken from the demonic cultivators, and kicked its hilt.
Swish—
A half-dead demonic cultivator wriggling among the remains was directly impaled into the sand by her thrown spirit sword.
“Ah—!”
Pei Lianxue slowly walked over, pulled the spirit sword from his back, quickly swept across the back of his neck, then planted the spirit sword before her and let out a long sigh: “Hoo… all dealt with.”
She waved her hand and took out her small notebook from her Storage Bag. She flipped through seven or eight pages, stopping at one titled “Things to Be Careful of When Dealing with Ghost Spirit Sect Disciples.”
“Mm… I need to first use water-element spirit arts to force out their ghost spirits, then use fire-element spells to scorch them, to avoid any stragglers…”
Muttering this, she took a deep breath, lifted her right foot, and channeled her spiritual energy from her meridians into her right foot.
Screech—!
A sound like breaking ice emanated from her step. Ice-blue spiritual energy surged madly around her from her toes, covering a radius of nearly two hundred zhang of sand with a layer of frost.
Pei Lianxue cautiously scanned her surroundings, then took out several stacks of Fire Element Talismans prepared by Ye Anping from her Storage Bag and scattered them, ensuring that every severed limb of the demonic cultivators on the ground was evenly bathed in flames.
Only after watching these twenty-odd Core Formation Stage demonic cultivators turn into ashes did she breathe a sigh of relief. She waved towards the Sword Sect disciples standing in a neat line to the east, indicating that it was all resolved.
“Sister Yun!! It’s done!!”
Yun Xi, sitting in her wheelchair, felt as if her jaw had dislocated. She only snapped back to attention when she heard Pei Lianxue’s voice. She used her hand to push her jaw back into place and swallowed.
Beside her, Zhang Yihe, full of admiration, scratched the back of his head and chuckled: “Ahahaha… Fairy Pei is truly amazing, she took care of all these demonic cultivators by herself, and didn’t even let Third Miss bury herself in the sand.”
“Amazing?”
“Ah? You don’t think it’s amazing, Third Miss?”
“…”
Yun Xi felt that “amazing” was simply not enough to describe what Pei Lianxue had just done. One person, the time it took for one stick of incense, over twenty Core Formation Stage demonic cultivators—all reduced to ashes. She couldn’t help but swallow, suddenly feeling that the leg broken by the demon beast that had barged into her bedroom two days ago no longer hurt.
From Donghuang City to here, due to the need to escort tens of thousands of Qi Refining Stage cultivators, their group’s progress had been quite slow. And, just like on the way here, they had encountered a beast tide, a sandstorm, and now this wave of pursuing demonic cultivators. However, they were all resolved by Pei Lianxue alone, with no need for the Sword Sect disciples or the Qi Refining Stage cultivators to intervene. A few days ago, Yun Xi had even witnessed Pei Lianxue personally split apart an approaching tornado with her spiritual energy with a single sword strike…
At this moment, Pei Lianxue slowly walked up to Yun Xi. Seeing her staring blankly, she couldn’t help but shrink her head slightly and ask, “Sister Yun, what’s wrong?”
“Ah… No!!” Yun Xi felt an urge to kneel and kowtow to her. She exclaimed, “Junior Sister Pei, you’re the real sister! Sister will be your cow and horse from now on!”
Pei Lianxue didn’t understand and froze. She looked at Zhang Yihe, gesturing for him to translate. Zhang Yihe paused, then said with a smile, “Third Miss is probably saying that Fairy Pei looks older than she appears.”
Pei Lianxue immediately furrowed her brows, appearing to take it seriously: “Hmm?”
Yun Xi’s eyes widened, feeling an urge to kick Zhang Yihe’s balls, but her leg was still in a cast: “Zhang Yihe, you damn…”
“Ahaha…” Zhang Yihe chuckled, cupped his fists, and said, “Fairy Pei, it’s just a joke. Third Miss is admiring you. And Third Miss, you should remember to smile! A smile can shave ten years off your age. You’ve been frowning all the way from Donghuang, attracting all this bad luck. I was just trying to make you laugh…”
“You call this making Grandma laugh?!”
Zhang Yihe squinted his eyes and pointed at Pei Lianxue, “Hey~ Isn’t Fairy Pei smiling now?”
Yun Xi turned her head to look. Pei Lianxue seemed embarrassed by the compliment, her cheeks flushing. Seeing Yun Xi look over, Pei Lianxue shook her head and said, “It’s all thanks to my senior brother’s good teaching. Before we departed, my senior brother told me that Sister Yun must have committed many sins in her past life, thus having very bad luck. He prepared over twenty pouches for me, and I’ve used almost all of them.”
?
— What do you mean almost all of them? Pouches are meant to be used only at critical moments, aren’t they?
— Have I unknowingly passed through over twenty critical moments?
“I…”
Yun Xi was dumbfounded, her mouth agape for a long time before she seemed to resign herself to her fate, her eyes losing their luster as she let out a cold laugh: “Heh… Hehehehe…”
Zhang Yihe ignored her. He glanced at the sand dune, frozen into ice by Pei Lianxue a short distance ahead. He then grabbed the armrest of Yun Xi’s wheelchair and said, “Fairy Pei, you should go back to the Immortal Ship to rest. I’ll have the Sword Sect disciples scout around. There might be demonic cultivators ambushing us…”
Before he could finish speaking…
Boom—!!!
About three hundred li away, on a towering sand dune, a lightning spell that seemed capable of splitting day from night descended with a roar. The thunder arrived first, followed by the wind and waves.
Whoosh whoosh—!
“Ah— Ouch!!”
Yun Xi, sitting in her wheelchair, was blown backward and fell to the ground. Even Pei Lianxue and Zhang Yihe had to step forward and brace themselves in a lunge to maintain their balance.
Pei Lianxue frowned slightly, quickly raised her hand, and placed her index and middle fingers on her forehead, casting a far-seeing spell towards the sand dune. Nearly a thousand immortal cultivators were hidden within the clouds above, while below was a group of about two hundred demonic cultivators. After the earth-shattering lightning spell, few of the demonic cultivators could stand up.
The next moment, an old cultivator sitting on a crane’s back in the sky casually flicked his horsetail whisk, and countless fireballs rose into the air, surging towards the remaining demonic cultivators.
Boom boom—
The ground shook continuously, and dust billowed. Pei Lianxue was initially puzzled, but upon seeing the old cultivator in a pink coat on the back of a crane in the sky, the frown on her brow immediately relaxed. She summoned her flying sword, stepped onto it, and flew towards them.
“Ah?! Fairy Pei!!”
Zhang Yihe, not understanding what was happening, reached out to stop her. But upon turning and seeing their Third Miss with her head buried in the sand, he let out a sigh, ignored Pei Lianxue, and pulled Yun Xi out: “Hey? Third Miss, why are you…”
“Zhang Yihe!! Shut your damn mouth for Grandma!!”
“Oh…”
… …
————
Thunder rolled before the clouds. Nearly a thousand immortal cultivators stood on their flying swords, their eyes emotionless as they looked at the demonic cultivators below, now turned into charcoal. The old man on the back of the crane glanced at the man flying a sword beside him and raised an eyebrow, asking, “Brother Liang, why such a temper? Be careful of spiritual energy backlash… hehe.”
Liang Zhu took a deep breath, scattered the residual sparks of electricity on his body, and exhaled, replying, “It’s nothing…”
“You don’t look like it’s nothing. I remember you were quite happy when you first formed your Golden Core. How come after visiting Elder Tong, you came back with eyes that look like you want to kill someone?”
Liang Zhu averted his gaze, his expressionless face: “It’s really nothing.”
Liang Zhu had not formed a heavenly Dao Golden Core like Ye Anping. He had chosen the most stable path and entered seclusion in the back mountain of the Hundred Lotus Sect for a year, passing a second-grade Golden Core tribulation. After his Golden Core was formed and he left seclusion, he was quite happy. He thought he could finally see his dear Ating and have a hug after a year’s separation, so he rushed back to the Hundred Lotus Sect.
However, although he did meet Ating as he wished, what he saw was Ating in a painting. The painting depicted his sixth brother and Ating: his sixth brother had his arm around Ating’s shoulder, and Ating was making a V-sign with her fingers… There was also a caption: “I will take good care of Ating.”
When Tong Zilan showed the painting to Liang Zhu, he was so angry that he almost shattered his Golden Core and died… Although he later learned from Hong Yu that this was his sixth brother’s return gift for his Golden Core formation, he still needed a place to vent his anger. The Foundation Establishment Stage demonic cultivators hiding nearby just happened to become his punching bag.
Ye Ao, sitting on the back of the crane, scanned the demonic cultivator corpses below and sighed, “It’s been several hundred years since I’ve encountered demonic cultivators. Are these people Ghost Spirit Sect disciples? Donghuang City has indeed been destroyed by the Ghost Spirit Sect, just as Ping’er said…”
Liang Zhu responded coldly, “He’s never been wrong.”
“Sigh… I don’t know if it’s that wherever he goes, trouble arises, or if trouble is about to arise, he just rushes into it?” Ye Ao sighed with a hint of helplessness, feeling a mix of pride and worry for Ye Anping. He then stroked the white beard he had specially attached to his chin.
“Brother Liang, which direction next?”
Liang Zhu hesitated for a moment, then waved his hand and took out a geographical map from his Storage Bag. This map was originally given by Ye Anping to Hong Yu, who then had Tong Zilan give it to him. It recorded the exact travel routes of the four current teams.
“Young Master Ye asked us to meet up with Miss Pei. Judging by the location, she should be nearby. It’s likely that Miss Pei encountered some unexpected trouble on the road, or perhaps she went in the wrong direction…”
“Finding someone in the desert isn’t difficult. I’ll have the disciples scout the area…”
Just as Ye Ao was saying this, a voice from the west interrupted him.
“Sect Master Ye!!!”
Liang Zhu and Ye Ao turned to look. They saw Pei Lianxue, dressed in an ice-blue long dress, flying rapidly towards them on her sword.
The two looked at each other. Ye Ao couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and smile: “Heh… Speak of Fairy Pei, and here she is.” He then patted the crane beneath him. The crane, after dropping a white “bomb” onto the demonic cultivator corpses below, quickly spread its wings and turned to meet Pei Lianxue. Liang Zhu followed closely behind.
The three met mid-air. Pei Lianxue, riding her sword, stopped in front of the crane and was surprised. She immediately cupped her hands and shouted, “Hello, Brother Liang! Hello, Sect Master Ye!”
Ye Ao, with a fatherly smile, looked her up and down and asked cheerfully, “Did you encounter any major trouble on the way?”
“No! Before I separated from my senior brother, he gave me over twenty pouches. He told me what to do in any situation, hehe—”
“…Over twenty pouches?”
“Mm!” Pei Lianxue responded energetically and casually took one out, offering it to Ye Ao with cupped hands. Ye Ao was silent for a moment, then opened it. Inside was a cheap Jade Slip, which read:
“If you encounter a large sandstorm, do not panic. Sandstorms in the Central Domain are not natural phenomena but a type of spirit demon without a physical body. As long as you use your spiritual sense to find its core and cut it with your water spiritual energy, you should be able to do it. If you cannot find the core with your spiritual sense, immediately lead the team to detour.”
Ye Ao was stunned and knitted his brows, asking, “Sandstorms are spirit demons? Where did this boy hear that? Brother Liang, have you heard of this?”
“When I was in the Xing Tian Division, I heard rumors of this, but there was no proof, and no one has ever cut open a sandstorm. Ordinary Sword Cultivators certainly can’t do it…”
Ye Ao let out a sigh with deep meaning: “Mm…”
At this point, Pei Lianxue looked at Ye Ao, recalling her senior brother’s plan, and tilted her head, asking, “Sect Master Ye, did Senior Brother ask you to follow as well?”
“Mm?” Ye Ao was slightly taken aback and chuckled awkwardly, “Ahaha… What? If you’re in trouble, can’t I come help?”
“No… it’s just that Senior Brother didn’t mention it. Senior Brother only said that Brother Liang would come to meet me…”
Ye Ao found it difficult to explain. The truth was that Kong Yulan wanted to have more children with Ye Anping, and he found it unbearable. Upon hearing about the situation in Donghuang from Liang Zhu, he used the excuse “I’m going to protect my son” to escape from Kong Yulan.
“Ultimately, I am also a cultivator at the Core Formation Stage. While I can’t help with major matters, I can still help with small ones. Brother Liang mentioned that Miss Yun is with you. At least greet me and take me over.”
“Okay!!”
… …
