Chapter 182 — One Arrow, Three Hawks

Follow Zhou Xuan and there were treasures and elixirs; defy Zhou Xuan and be annihilated in spirit and form. Anyone would know which to choose. Lan Shen of course forced himself to be loyal—otherwise, with Zhou Xuan's shrewdness and eye, how could any stray thought of his escape that keen gaze?

"No matter what, the two young ladies must not be harmed. As for this old Kongtong Daoist—just go and die for me. Kill the witness, silence the mouth, and the whole affair vanishes. I've done this sort of thing before, after all. When the Sect Master learns of it, he may even be pleased and reward me with a Yun Cen immortal pill—worth a hundred years of bitter cultivation!"

Seeing Huanling's Five-Poison Banners sweep down, Lan Shen's mouth curved in contempt. He unfurled one of Zhou Xuan's Capital Heaven Nether King Banners and gave it a single sweep and curl. A billowing black qi rose from below to meet them, and a Capital Heaven Demon God upon the banner roared. There, three inches from the banner's face, it opened a bloody maw, its saber-like fangs standing erect as though in solid flesh, and drew in a breath. The countless phantasmal venomous creatures that had come pouncing were sucked into that mouth one after another, and not one escaped.

The black qi unfurled from the Nether King Banner met the five-colored smoke and poisonous mist, and swallowed them utterly clean. Lan Shen raised the banner in both hands and waved it five times, then gave it a final furl. Black qi, smoke, and poisonous mist all dispersed; the sky grew bright. By now the hour had turned: the Jade Rabbit had sunk and the Long Star had risen, and faint threads of red light flickered at the horizon. The five Five-Poison Banners too had been rolled into Lan Shen's banner.

Seeing Lan Shen dispatch the Five-Poison Banners the moment he made his move, Huanling's face went ashen. He truly could not fathom how this little girl, who looked no more than eight or nine, could possess such power. It was sheer terror—her cultivation and attainment were scarcely inferior to those immortals.

"In all the world… there is such height of attainment? No… impossible… Senior Brother Huankong said the Shuyang Sect Master is only at the Return-to-Void stage!" The old Daoist Huanling knew he was no match even at his fiercest, and seeing the faint murderous glint in Lan Shen's eyes, he feared the man would kill him to silence him—then there would not even be anyone left to carry word back. Hurriedly he summoned his escape-light and made to flee.

How could Lan Shen let him run? With a wicked grin he raised the Blood-Transforming Saber. The blood-blade flew like swift lightning, trailing boundless killing intent, and in the blink of an eye was before the old Daoist Huanling's face.

Seeing that blood-light, Huanling knew it for an instrument of extreme ferocity; there was no escaping it. In desperate haste he spat out another flying sword, one cultivated as one with his own life. With a soft hiss, the flying sword was flicked by the Blood-Transforming Saber and, like so much bean curd, sheared into two. Lan Shen had struck ruthlessly; he drove the blade-light on to cut at the waist, meaning to slice the old Daoist Huanling in two.

It seemed the old Daoist Huanling too would not escape his doom—when the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree in Zhou Chen's hand flew free. Its colored light curled out, entangled the Blood-Transforming Saber, and slapped it back, and Zhou Xuan's voice came down from the sky.

"Lan Shen, what did I tell you? Put that blade away!" Zhou Xuan's voice came from every direction. Only then did Lan Shen recall that when Zhou Xuan came he had said not to release the Blood-Transforming Saber. He gave a shudder from head to foot, put the blade away, and stood honestly to one side.

He knew that Zhou Xuan, within the Great Freedom Grotto-Heaven, was using supreme arcane power to pierce space and transmit his voice, controlling the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree to block his strike. Yet Lan Shen was puzzled: "The Sect Master is no kindly sort either—why would he save this old Daoist's life? Can it be the Sect Master means to seize the occasion to stir up trouble and wipe out Kongtong? Kongtong is, after all, a sect of a thousand years; to exterminate them utterly would be difficult, I fear. And when You Cen goes to the heavens hereafter, if Guangheng learns of it, that too will be a great headache."

The old Daoist Huanling, having escaped his doom, was frightened half out of his wits. At last he steadied himself, and seeing how matters stood, dared not make a scene. Inwardly he was aghast: "The one speaking is the Minglun Sect Master himself. Such power… it is simply… too terrifying. How did my Kongtong ever provoke such a man…?"

"This must be the Minglun Sect Master. This poor Daoist's religious name is Huanling; I am an elder of Kongtong. This affair was indeed my Kongtong's fault. My nephew Earth Spirit had never before left Kongtong, and our Sect Master doted on him exceedingly, so his temperament grew somewhat spoiled—enough to destroy the treasures of the Sect Master's two disciples. But that is hardly a capital offense. Moreover, the Sect Master's two disciples secretly watched this poor Daoist refining his instrument, which is a great taboo in the world of cultivation. The Sect Master bestowed so ferocious a treasure and took my nephew's life—I beg the Sect Master to give some accounting."

For a time the old Daoist Huanling hardly knew how to speak. To use harsh words—he feared the other would silence him. To be meek and lowly—that would cost his sect face. Truly he was in a dilemma. But he had cast caution aside; there was no other way. Had Zhou Xuan not blocked that blow just now, he would long since have been annihilated in spirit and form.

With a soft hiss, the gourd the little fox had raised in the air suddenly became a long rainbow and flew into the heavens. Plainly Zhou Xuan had recalled it. The little fox went white with fright, thinking Zhou Xuan meant to punish her.

She had brought down a great calamity herself. If Zhou Xuan, to smooth things over, expelled the two sisters from the sect, then the two of them would surely be flayed alive by the Kongtong Sect.

"Life and death are ordained; wealth and honor lie with Heaven. That your nephew was mistakenly slain by my disciple is the decree of Heaven—this tribulation was appointed for him, the fruit of his own karma. You cannot blame another. Heaven merely borrowed my disciple's hand. What accounting is there to speak of?"

"You—!" Hearing Zhou Xuan's words, the old Daoist Huanling was so furious that the three corpse-spirits within him nearly leaped from his body. What manner of talk was this? The crime of murder wiped away with a single phrase, "the decree of Heaven"! He had seen sophistry before, but never sophistry like this.

"Good! Good! Good! I never thought the Shuyang Sect Master would be such a shielder of his own. So then—my Kongtong disciple died for nothing? This poor Daoist knows himself no match for you. Then kill me!" The old Daoist Huanling fiercely recited an incantation. With a bang his topknot burst apart, his hair flying loose, and like a mad tiger he charged at the little fox and Zhou Chen, blood-light flickering in his eyes: "Even if I die, I'll drag you two sluts down to pad my grave!"

A vast momentum erupted, and even Lan Shen's expression shifted slightly. The old Daoist Huanling had indeed lost his reason and had begun to detonate his own primal essence. A Return-to-Void cultivator self-detonating his primal essence—how great would the power be? It was scarcely imaginable.

Lan Shen's body flickered, and he was before the two girls. He seized them both and together they fled into the void. The old Daoist Huanling gave a great roar and followed them in; at the Return-to-Void height, one naturally had the power to break open the void.