Chapter 126 — The Witch Demon

Tianxuan like snow, transformed into a heaven-cleaving great sword, came crashing down and split the mountain-like red radiance in two. The immense demonic power rebounded; Lu Xueling, white robes fluttering, was flung back into the sky, yet her figure moved graceful and unhurried through the wind, her sharp blade brandishing, thread after thread of shrill ringing, and in an instant wind and clouds gathered, all of them around her.

That fine hair drifting, brushing past a fair cheek—the hue of a jade countenance.

A deep breath.

She took seven paces, dancing like a fairy upon the clouds; before she could even open her mouth to chant the spell, the sky had already rolled up the clouds like a scroll, transforming into a vortex that trembled violently.

"The Nine Heavens' Mystic Threshold, become the divine thunder. The majestic might of Heaven—let the sword draw it down!"

The ancient incantation echoed mysteriously once more across the sky, and that white figure was mirrored in whose eyes, like a lily dancing madly?

Ten years of time, in this storm-tossed foreign land, in this place where heaven and earth changed color and wind and clouds gathered—all of it surfaced one by one.

A vast and profound vortex of darkness spun swiftly across the sky, lightning writhing through it, the wind shrieking. Lu Xueling stood in midair, white robes fluttering.

The supreme secret art of the Canglan Sect, the "True Art of the Divine Sword Summoning Thunder," was displayed in her hands with such grandeur and such boundless power that at this moment even compared with Tian Buhui in the battle of Liubo Mountain that day, her aura was not the least bit inferior.

The Orthodox cultivators around her all marveled, but this scene, falling into Ming Li's eyes, jolted him in a way no one knew.

There, deep in the clouds, beneath the Tianxuan sword, at the moment when the endless blue light was in full bloom, within Lu Xueling's figure there was faintly, dimly, a trace of pale gold—carrying a measure of solemnity, and a measure of strangeness too.

This was not the doctrine of the Canglan Sect!

The fierce wind grew ever more urgent. This thought flashed through Ming Li's mind and was gone; behind his savage laughter, in his heart and in his eyes, what else remained?

A cold gaze looked down from the sky, and behind the red radiance, a proud and evil figure.

Lu Xueling's bright eyes were frost itself. She gave a long cry, and the lightning that filled the heavens rang out in thunderous unison, rolling far into the distance as though it would tear the sky and earth apart.

Deep within the clouds, countless bolts of lightning gathered swift as thought, thunderclaps bursting unending across the horizon. In a few moments, within the depths of that dark vortex, a huge shaft of lightning took shape and plunged down from the heavens, striking the Tianxuan Divine Sword.

That dazzling radiance seemed to rest in her hand.

"What swordcraft!"

Ming Li laughed aloud, a bitter and savage laugh that thundered upward through the red glow, piercing enough to rend the heart and split the lungs.

That white figure, exalted on high, of peerless grace—after all, she was this unattainable...

...

The Blood-Devouring Bead bloomed with inexhaustible light. In that instant, the three strange gleams of red, azure, and black were all of them wielded to their utmost by Ming Li's evil power, rank with demonic aura, howling toward the heavens like ghosts and weeping spirits, enough to make one's hair stand on end.

Lu Xueling's expression turned colder still; the last flicker of hesitation in her eyes was at last severed.

The lightning shrieked its long cry, and all the gods and Buddhas of the sky chanted as one!

Far off, someone suddenly cried out in alarm.

Ming Li, wholly absorbed in guarding against that rare marvel of a spell in the sky, was startled when a sharp whistling rose suddenly behind him. In the flash of a spark he wrenched his body aside, and with a "pu" a flat-bladed jade ruler, like some divine weapon that nothing could withstand, ran him clean through the right shoulder and out.

Ming Li gave a great roar and whipped his head around, and there was Li Xun, jade ruler in hand, his face full of wrath and hatred.

"Aah—"

He howled long at the sky, and the Blood-Devouring Demonic Staff, trailing boundless red light, came slashing down in an instant. Li Xun's pupils contracted, yet not a trace of fear showed; he pulled hard with his right hand, and with a "si—" drew the jade ruler free, bringing a fountain of blood gushing out with it.

The red glow crashed down; Li Xun braced himself and resisted with all his might. The arts of Fenxia Valley were indeed no small matter, and moreover Ming Li was gravely wounded and the red glow unsteady, so that even at such close quarters Li Xun managed to block it.

Yet what manner of dire thing was the Blood-Devouring Bead, a blood-refined evil treasure bound to Ming Li by blood? In moments boundless evil power came surging through the jade ruler, and Li Xun's right hand, which gripped it, withered away before one's very eyes beneath that unthinkable ghostly force.

Li Xun was horrified and struggled with all his strength, but Ming Li was by now near madness; he thrust out his hand and seized, his five fingers like talons, clamping hard upon Li Xun's right hand.

Li Xun felt a searing pain, cold sweat breaking out all over him. Just at this critical moment, a low Buddha's name came from nearby, mingled with a sigh.

A gentle golden light welled forth, solemn and serene—it was the Great Brahma Prajna of the Fanyin Temple!

The wondrous arts of the Buddha's gate counter the demonic power of the Blood-Devouring Bead; that insidious, all-pervading, and vicious alien force of the bead was pushed back a full foot by his sheer will.

Seizing only this moment's respite, Facheng caught hold of Li Xun and swiftly retreated backward; yet in his eyes there was nothing but a look of compassion and helplessness, fixed straight upon that figure of a man swaying in the wind.

At this moment the huge white shaft of lightning in the sky came falling from the heavens, and with matchless power, unerringly, it struck Ming Li!