劍問蒼天 - 第235章 陰謀 - 清風書屋

The mountain wind blew softly; the dense trees all around swayed with it. Night hung low, and from deep within the earthen pit came a ceaseless stir of sound that went on for a good while, then suddenly fell still. A moment later came a muffled thud—something had been flung out of the pit and landed heavily upon the path beside it.

Beneath the faint starlight, it was unmistakably that thousand-year mystic log!

After a while longer came the rustle of garments, and Jin Pingyue and Cangyan Daoren leaped up together. For all their cultivation, the two of them looked somewhat weary, a plain sign that to alter this spirit node's energy vein—or indeed the Heavenly Secret Lock itself—was no easy matter.

Once her breathing had steadied a little, Jin Pingyue frowned and asked Cangyan Daoren, "Since we are here to destroy this Heavenly Secret Lock, so that should trouble come in the future the Canglan Sect can no longer lend the seven peaks' spiritual energy to the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation—would it not suffice simply to pull up this thousand-year mystic log? Why go to the trouble of forcibly changing where the energy converges? Is that not a needless complication?"

Cangyan Daoren shook his head. "This Canglan Mountain is a blessed ground of the world, its spiritual energy exceedingly abundant—and that is precisely why Patriarch Canglan Zi valued this place. Pulling up the thousand-year mystic log would only let the energy leak away. But for one thing, the earth-vein energy here is abundant to begin with; for another, as you can see, three peaks gather close about it outside, making any leakage all the harder. Only by changing the place where the energy converges—though but slightly shifted—can we draw the point of convergence away from this heaven-made, almost watertight convergence of three peaks, and then borrow the mountain winds to scatter it slowly abroad. Should anyone in the future raise the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation again, though the spiritual energy of Dragon Ridge Peak would still be abundant, it would be dispersed across the whole mountain and could no longer be gathered—and he would be helpless."

Only then did Jin Pingyue understand, and she nodded in agreement. Then she asked, "Now that the Heavenly Secret Lock of Dragon Ridge Peak has been destroyed, what of the other six veins?"

Cangyan Daoren pondered a moment, then shook his head. "At most we can destroy the Heavenly Secret Locks of the remaining three veins—Luoxia Peak, Fenghui Peak, and Zhaoyang Peak. As for the three veins of Jietian Peak, Dazhu Peak, and Xiaozhu Peak, I fear there is nothing to be done."

Jin Pingyue's curiosity stirred. "And why is that?"

Cangyan Daoren said mildly, "Jietian Peak is the chief vein of Qingyun; its defenses are the strictest, to say nothing of that. But the spiritual energy there is no trifling matter. When the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation is unleashed, it has always drawn chiefly upon the energy of Jietian Peak, with the six veins' energy as support. As the saying goes, one tug at a single hair moves the whole body—at the slightest disturbance, I fear my senior brother Daoyan, whose cultivation reaches into the mysteries, would know of it at once. So it cannot be touched."

He paused, then went on: "The sites of the Heavenly Secret Locks on Luoxia Peak, Fenghui Peak, and Zhaoyang Peak I know, and I think there will be no great difficulty there. But as for the two veins of Dazhu Peak and Xiaozhu Peak, I do not know where their Heavenly Secret Locks are."

Jin Pingyue said in surprise, "And why is that?"