Chapter 66: Thunder Sound on the Sword
Song Yan was currently channeling the wind and thunder spiritual essence from the dead wood, the sword dao seed beginning to rotate slowly. He glanced toward another cliff, where two men and one woman stood.
His spiritual sense swept over them. Aside from one male cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining, the other man and woman both possessed cultivation at the sixth level of Qi Refining.
“Han Mei, the two mountains connect here, wide and flat. This must be the place the stele described—where the Foundation Establishment senior cultivated.”
“Having obtained that incomplete technique scroll, this trip has already been a great gain. If we could…”
The loose cultivator wore a yellow scholar’s robe, with a refined air about his brow. He appeared quite amiable.
He suddenly paused, his gaze turning into the distance.
On the cliff across the valley, a man and a woman stood nearby, while a young cultivator sat cross-legged before a dead wood branch, guiding wind and thunder at his fingertips.
“Brother Zhao!”
The female cultivator in red pointed from afar toward Song Yan. “That is… the supreme spiritual essence of thunder!”
“Earlier, the stele below the valley said that if one could use the supreme spiritual essences of fire, wind, and thunder to supplement cultivation, advancement in the technique could progress a thousand li in a single day!”
The two exchanged glances, without even consulting the fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator, and rushed forward.
“A Ming! Go disrupt that person’s technique, then come assist us.”
“…Yes… yes, Sister.”
The fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator was young, the same age as Song Yan, but when it came to fighting others, he seemed rather timid.
Rong Xiaofeng frowned. Along with Wu Huaguo, she stepped to the middle of the cliff walkway and blocked the three.
“Excuse me, but—”
Boom!!!
A condensed water wave shot from the female cultivator’s side, aimed straight at Wu Huaguo’s face.
She had no intention of chatting. If the young cultivator managed to seize the spiritual essence, with evenly matched forces, the outcome would be unpredictable.
Now, with a numerical advantage, victory was truly assured!
Who had time for idle chatter?!
Almost simultaneously, Wu Huaguo’s hand seals had already activated. A flowering tree rose before her and Rong Xiaofeng.
The Compassionate Flower Understanding Scripture was incomplete, and cultivating it carried a major flaw—at the same realm, the amount of spiritual energy one could contain was relatively less.
Thus, Wu Huaguo was extremely careful about her consumption of spiritual energy.
Facing the opponent’s swift and ferocious water-attribute spell, the flowering tree she controlled had only a slender branch.
Moreover, it did not block head-on, but instead deflected slightly to the side, causing the condensed water column to glance off at an angle.
Easily neutralized.
“Brother Zhao!”
The female cultivator in red produced a water-basket-shaped magical artifact, surging water spiritual energy gathering within it as she called out to the scholar-robed cultivator.
Hummm—
Spiritual insects swarmed from her sleeves, forming a dark cloud behind Rong Xiaofeng…
“Insect cultivator…”
The scholar-robed cultivator narrowed his eyes slightly but did not retreat. A bamboo scroll in his hand slowly unfurled, earth-yellow spiritual light surging forth.
The great battle was triggered in an instant.
On one side, Wu Huaguo and the red-robed female cultivator fought evenly.
But Rong Xiaofeng, battling the scholar-robed cultivator, fell to the disadvantage.
He drove his spiritual insects forward, but in a single exchange, more than a small portion were injured by the opponent’s strange technique.
For some reason, that earth-attribute spiritual energy made it difficult for his insects to beat their wings, and combined with earth-and-stone spells that crushed the insects…
It had a suppressing effect…
“Daoist Tong…”
Rong Xiaofeng grew anxious in his heart. Though they admired Song Yan and wished to befriend him, it was entirely out of the question to risk the lives of him and his wife for Song Yan’s benefit.
Song Yan took in the entire battlefield with a single glance. He spoke concisely: “Half an incense stick’s time.”
Half an incense stick’s time?
Rong Xiaofeng was stunned. In truth, it was much faster than he had imagined.
So he gritted his teeth. “Good! Half an incense stick’s time!”
At that moment, in a corner no one paid attention to.
Xiao He had quietly snuck behind the stone stele marked “Wind and Moon Cliff.”
Wu Huaguo caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye, her gaze shifting, and then a large amount of spiritual energy condensed at her fingertips.
“Flora Awakening!”
Shhh shhh shhh—
On the once barren Wind and Moon Cliff, countless tender sprouts, green grass, small trees, and wild flowers suddenly sprouted thickly.
A faint floral scent could be detected upon close sniffing.
The flowers and grass grew increasingly lush, already reaching past everyone’s calves.
Xiao He turned her head and glanced at Wu Huaguo, thinking to herself that this elder sister was quite clever.
Then she darted in a flash, disappearing into the thicket of flowers and grass.
The red-robed female cultivator and the scholar-robed cultivator were both entangled with Rong and Wu.
At the edge of the battlefield, the young loose cultivator seemed to have finally summoned his courage. He gripped an aged broad blade and charged toward Song Yan.
He muttered under his breath, “Just one strike, just one strike.”
As if encouraging himself.
But perhaps due to a lack of experience fighting others, or because his focus on the goal of “killing” was too intense, he had not even formed a protective spiritual garment.
Hsss…
At his ears came the hiss of some cold-blooded creature.
From the dense thicket of flowers and grass at his feet, a cold chill rapidly crept up his neck. “!”
His hair stood on end. He turned to look, and a pair of serpent eyes shimmering with a blue-gold radiance stared at him mockingly.
Hiss!!
Intense pain shot from his neck.
A moment of daze—the young man felt the world before his eyes grow blurry.
He instinctively flailed his blade wildly.
The blue serpent leaped into the grass, vanishing once more from everyone’s sight.
The young cultivator staggered, waving his blade randomly. The protective spiritual garment that had belatedly formed around him dissolved again as both his spiritual energy and physical strength fell into disarray.
“A Ming!”
“S-Sister… I…”
That young man’s movements grew slower and slower, until he collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.
He had fainted.
“Hm?”
Xiao He tilted her head in surprise.
It seemed even she had not expected that among human cultivators, the so-called mid-stage Qi Refining and early-stage Qi Refining made no real difference.
Just like back at Stone Bridge Town.
“Humans really are so weak…”
She thought.
Wu Huaguo held nothing back. Everything was aimed at stalling for time.
If they could not hold, the husband and wife would ultimately have to retreat.
She pressed her palms together. Petals fell one by one, swirling above the cliff walkway.
“Understanding!”
The red-robed female cultivator suddenly discovered that on the back of her hand, blue veins bulged, as though something was trying to burst out from within.
“Ahhh—”
Bang!
In a burst of crimson, a small purple-leafed flower bloomed on her hand.
The red-robed female cultivator stumbled backward, coughing up several mouthfuls of dark blood.
“When did you… the scent… pollen?”
Fortunately, she had made an immediate decision to halt her spiritual energy circulation and expel the remaining strange wooden spirit entities from her body. Otherwise, she would have been severely wounded on the spot.
The scholar-robed cultivator did not move to aid the female cultivator. Instead, his protective spiritual energy surged.
He knew clearly that quickly killing this insect cultivator and then going to assist Han Mei was the optimal choice.
Rumble—
Sand and soil surged forward, engulfing the swarm of spiritual insects.
“Not good!”
Rong Xiaofeng tried to withdraw the insect swarm, but it was already too late. He managed to extract only a small portion.
The scholar-robed cultivator sneered coldly from a distance and squeezed his hand. “Burial!”
Pff—
Rong Xiaofeng’s mind wavered. He immediately spat blood, feeling his vitality severely damaged.
Countless insect carcasses fell.
In the next breath, a wave of sand swept toward him once more!
At that very moment.
A streak of sword qi shot through the air.
The scholar-robed cultivator leaned slightly to the side, easily dodging the sword qi…
“Hmph, a trivial—”
Chi!
Where the sword qi passed, a moment’s delay erupted into arcs of lightning!
Golden arcs of light shredded the scholar-robed cultivator’s protective spiritual garment with ease, surging into his arm!
“What…”
He grunted, staggering back several steps, channeling spiritual energy to dissipate the lightning disaster.
Rong Xiaofeng gained a moment to breathe and similarly retreated.
All eyes turned to the dead tree. The wind and thunder above its branches were gone.
Beside it, Song Yan’s gaze was lowered.
The Mo Bai flying sword hovered before him. His left hand traced a sword finger lightly across the blade.
“My thanks to you both for protecting me.”
Lotus-shaped sword qi surged, flowing from his fingertips to cover the sword’s surface.
Where it passed, several faintly pulsing arcs of golden light remained.
Hummm—
The flying sword shot toward the scholar-robed cultivator.
The sword’s cry was clear, like thunder!