Chapter 297: Chapter 297

“Whether she offended him or not is still an open question,” Qingxu said. “But this whole move was pointless. All it did was throw the Star River into chaos. What good did it actually accomplish?”

Ming Song was just as baffled. “If you say this is a scheme by the Northern Alliance to sow discord, that at least makes some sense. But Gu Yin is known as one of the sharpest minds of our era. Such a clumsy move really doesn’t feel like her style.”

Of course, no one imagined that this was just some guy acting on a moment of hotheaded impulse. Including Qingxu, everyone began to feel a headache coming on as they thought about the unexpected fallout this would bring to the Water Mirror Assembly.

Old Tian Yuan was a proud man who cared a lot about reputation, so it was easy to understand why he would refuse to show his face at the Water Mirror Conference after suffering such a heavy blow.

Still, the Star River was one of the most crucial pieces keeping the Rogue Cultivators’ Alliance in check. Without Star River’s cooperation, the entire Eastern region, especially the Mingxin Sword Sect, would be left completely exposed to their attacks. Without Star River’s extraordinary restrictions, the Mingxin Sword Sect’s ability to withstand pressure was frankly nothing to boast about.

You’ve got to admit, this was probably one of Old Tian Yuan’s private calculations.

Ming Song and the others all cottoned on to this sooner or later, and for a moment nobody said a word. The room felt heavy, like the air itself was pressing down on them. Seeing this, Qingxu let out a sigh and went on, “There’s something else. In front of the three sect leaders, Ming Ji swore a binding oath. If the one demon murdered Bisui and Yun Xing is not brought to justice, she will never attain the Dao.”

Ming Song and the others all went pale.

An oath like that might not mean much if it were sworn by someone else, but for Ming Ji, a cultivator almost certain to ascend one day, it was far too extreme. It was nothing short of a point of no return.

Still, everyone understood one thing. No one could have forced such a vicious oath on her. It could only have been her own choice. And the reason she made it was likely tied directly to Star River’s withdrawal from the alliance.

“Reckless. Absolutely reckless!”

“What a mess! What a mess!” Mingde stomped his foot over and over, wishing like hell he could turn back time and slap a hand over Ming Ji’s mouth before she ever opened it.

There were hotheads like him who flew into a rage, and then there were the cool, pragmatic types like Li Minghe. Watching Mingde lose it like that, he let out a cold laugh. “What’s the point of whining about it now? Lucky for us, Fourth Senior Sister didn’t swear she had to kill that demon bastard with her own hands. All we’ve gotta do is put in some real effort down the line and take that villain out sooner rather than later… that’ll settle it.”

Among the Seven Swords of Lianxia, apart from Mingji , Li Minghe was the one with the heaviest killing karma. Always the guy who made his fellow disciples frown and shake their heads. But today, when he laid it out like that, everybody nodded along. Even the gentlest of them all, Mingru, agreed it was the safest, most reliable way to handle things.

Before anyone realized it, the conversation had veered off in a different direction.

Ming Song was the steadiest of the bunch, after all. He could tell Qingxu still had more to say, so he quietly shut down the bickering among his junior brothers and sisters and turned his eyes toward Qingxu.

Sure enough, Qingxu gave a bitter smile. “There’s one more thing,” he said. “Ming Song, Mingru, I’ll have to trouble the two of you to make a trip…”

…

“Hm?”

Returning to the Qingcang River for the second time, listening to the unending roar of the water, Li Xun felt as if his body were a bellows. Only instead of air, it was gulping in and expelling chaotic torrents of stellar power that surged like the tide.

Bisu hadn’t been kidding when he said stellar power was poison to anyone outside the Xingji Sword Sect. Li Xun had sucked in way too much in one go, and now his head was spinning, vision swimming, while the true breath circulating through his meridians felt thick and clogged, like sludge. As for the damage it was doing to his bones, flesh, and organs, that went without saying.

Even so, it was all worth it.

By pushing himself in a way that bordered on self-harm, he blurred the boundaries of time. Judging by his physical condition and his current location, who would believe that just an hour ago he’d slipped into the Star River?

Still, the Xingji Sword Sect’s response caught Li Xun a little off guard.

Not long before, once he had figured the timing was about right, Li Xun deliberately triggered a restriction to expose his position, then immediately turned and ran.

Back then it was quite a spectacle. Dozens of streaks of sword light circled above his head. Li Xun had already steeled himself for a fight to the death. But with at least a hundred pairs of eyes locked on him, not a single person made a move. Hell, nobody even bothered to say a word to him.

Li Xun stood there stunned for a good long while before it finally started to sink in. He cautiously took a step forward, testing the waters. And those dozens of cultivators just stared at him coldly, not reacting in the slightest.

By this point, if he still hadn’t figured it out, he’d have to be denser than a brick. He drew a deep breath, treated the sword lights drifting overhead as if they weren’t even there, and, following the principles governing the flow of the Star River, started walking back the way he had come, step by step.

The journey back was anything but easy. Every cultivator of the Xingji Sword Sect was formidable. Though none of them lifted a hand, not one of their gazes held any goodwill. All that hostility piled up into a thick, choking killing intent that rippled through the air.

Even with his toes, Li Xun could guess how many other eyes were glued to this scene right now. Every single move he made in this moment carried the full weight of the Mingxin Sword Sect’s pride. If he showed even a flicker of fear, if he slipped up in the slightest, he’d turn into a laughingstock. And the Xingji Sword Sect cultivators sure as hell wouldn’t hold back their jeers.

Karma. This was karma.

Li Xun gave a bitter smile to himself. Only now did he realize what a massive burden the stellar power had wreaked on his meridians and organs. He had to keep the injuries suppressed on one hand, while fending off the crushing pressure from outside on the other. If he hadn’t known this stretch of the Qingcang River’s restrictions like the back of his hand, he wouldn’t have made it ten li before collapsing and making a complete fool of himself.

When he dove in again earlier, he had covered several hundred li in just an hour. Now, on the way back, nearly two hours had passed, and he had moved less than thirty li. At this rate, what year or month would it be before he ever made it out of the Star River?

He grumbled to himself on the inside, but his face stayed calm. His gaze stayed fixed ahead, and he treated the flashing sword lights in the sky as if they didn’t exist. As he went on, he stopped thinking about how much farther he had to go, or whether his body could still hold up. He simply kept moving forward, one step at a time, and a strange, martyr-like grim resolve began to well up in his heart.

That feeling, however, lasted only for a little while. When Li Xun took his next step, he sensed that something was off.

The primordial qi flowing around him had clearly lost that distinct Star River tang. The crushing external pressure vanished all at once, and the true breath that had been crammed into every inch of his body suddenly had nothing to brace against. His joints popped and cracked, and he was shaken so hard that he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Up in the sky, a few cold snorts sounded, and the sword lights scattered. Li Xun turned his head and immediately realized that he was already outside the Star River. In theory, there should have still been several hundred li to go… it was like someone had just wiped that away out of existence. The profundity of it was astonishing.

“What an incredible divine ability, turning vast distances into a single step.”

A familiar voice sounded beside his ear. Li Xun flinched in surprise and was about to turn around when a wave of intense dizziness crashed over him. He nearly collapsed. Luckily, a hand caught his arm just in time, steadying him. A soft whisper came right by his ear: “Good child. You’ve suffered a lot.”

Mingru…? Li Xun forced himself to blink, pushing back the darkness clouding his vision. When he turned his head, there she was… her face bright, beautiful, and gentle.

From the other side came what sounded like Ming Song’s voice again, loud as if he were calling out to someone far away. “You arrogant punk. Taking this beating today… maybe you’ll learn not to underestimate the masters of this world again!”

Mingru’s beautiful eyes curved into little crescents, but the clear light in them was so pure it stirred no stray or lustful thoughts in anyone. She gently channeled wisps of true breath through her hand, helping Li Xun straighten out his meridians. On his other side, Ming Song reached over and joined in. With the two of them working together, the injuries were quickly brought under control.

Then Ming Song leaned in and murmured in low praise: “Well done.”

Neither of them said anything more. Supporting Li Xun between them, they leaped into the air and flew off toward the chariot hundreds of li away. Only then did Li Xun fully grasp what had happened. He fought down the urge to burst out laughing, gently closed his eyes, and began tending to his injuries.

When Li Xun finally stepped onto the Cloud Tower Moon-Grasping Chariot, he was welcomed like a hero.

There was no doubt he had achieved exactly what he wanted. Everyone was praising him. Even someone as stern as Qingxu, after warning him not to get too full of himself, still gave him a couple of genuine compliments. Li Xun did not even need to explain himself. The result was far better than he’d hoped.

The reaction he was getting was almost more than Li Xun could handle. It actually made him uneasy.

Luckily, after just half an hour, the two sect masters, Qingming and Li Douliang, wrapped up their discussion with Old Tian Yuan and came back together, bailing Li Xun out of the awkward spotlight for the moment.

Come to think of it, Li Xun and Li Douliang went back a long way.

After he managed to trap and kill the Skyhawk Demon King by dragging things out for three years, it was this very man, the foremost grandmaster of the righteous path since Zhong Yin, who praised him as “the most resilient of the younger generation.” That single comment made the name “Spirit Bamboo” ring out across the entire world.

Now, seeing Li Douliang again, Li Xun felt a strange mix of emotions.

The reason was simple. Li Douliang’s appearance and bearing bore a striking resemblance to the Yun Xing he’d just swallowed. Both had that bold, free-spirited, chivalrous swagger. The mark of a true man of valor. Of course, Yun Xing’s presence fell far short of Li Douliang’s; it wasn’t even close. And that very gap was what made Li Xun feel distinctly uneasy in his company.

That said, Li Douliang looked grim right now and wasn’t paying much attention to him. Qingming, on the other hand, probably holding back because Li Douliang was right there, still managed to slip in quite a bit of praise with his words.

Li Xun quickly bowed and thanked them, but then he noticed someone was missing. He couldn’t help asking, “Where’s Fourth Martial Aunt? Hadn’t the Xingji Sword Sect already agreed to release her?”

Qingming stroked his long beard, a look of quiet helplessness on his face. “Ming Ji will be staying in the Star River for a few more days… It’s not that Sect Master Tian Yuan won’t let her go. She insists on holding a memorial at the place where our fellow Daoists died, to show her sincerity. She also wants to search the area for clues, hoping to identify the killer as soon as possible.”

Naturally, this was not something Li Xun enjoyed hearing, but he kept it to himself. Li Douliang, standing nearby, nodded after hearing this. “If the killer can be found quickly,” he said, “there may still be hope for the Water Mirror Summit… but really, plans never survive the hand of fate. Forget it.”

He was clearly in low spirits. Down in a way that didn’t really match his reputation as a grandmaster at all. It wasn’t just Li Xun who noticed; even Ming Song and the others looked a bit surprised. Qingming, though, stayed composed. He invited Li Douliang onto the chariot, and the two talked privately for about an hour before Li Douliang finally took his leave.

By that time, Li Xun and the others were also preparing to return to their own sect.