It was Jiǔwěi, the woman in red who had negotiated with Mr. Qin at the bookstore when he first came up the mountain!
Lin Zhao frowned, standing on a small boat, quietly observing Jiǔwěi.
…
Jiǔwěi, a supreme being of the Demon Race from the Ancestral Mountain, finally appeared after years of seclusion. Her name was Qingqiu, and she held an extremely high position on the Ancestral Mountain. At the fourteenth realm, second only to the Demon Ancestor, this woman, who commanded all demons, was now gazing intently at Lin Zhao. Her eyes shimmered, captivating and soul-stirring. She parted her red lips and smiled, “Little Zhao, are you willing to accompany me to see the Master?”
Lin Zhao’s heart trembled violently; he almost nodded in agreement, but then he remembered that this was all just a fleeting illusion. He clenched his fists so hard they ached, desperately controlling his emotions, and said softly, “I am not willing.”
“Why?”
Jiǔwěi smiled faintly, “Don’t you miss Mr. Qin?”
“I do.”
Lin Zhao frowned and said, “But I cannot see the Master yet, as there are still many things left unfinished. If I were to see the Master now, he would be disappointed.”
“So then…”
Jiǔwěi’s dimples deepened as she smiled, “You refuse the toast and choose the penalty? If that is the case, do not blame me for being ruthless…”
With that, Jiǔwěi took out a jade cup. With her slender, fair hand, she scooped up a portion of the lake water with the cup. Instantly, the lake water churned, and before Lin Zhao’s eyes, the jade cup grew infinitely large, engulfing a large amount of lake water, along with Lin Zhao and the small boat. Immediately after, Jiǔwěi opened her mouth, intending to drink the water in the cup.
“Ah!?”
Lin Zhao gripped Zhanlu, his heart nearly ceasing to beat. A torrential surge of demonic energy poured down from the sky, causing the small boat to bob up and down in the lake. When Lin Zhao looked up, he saw the endless lake water pouring into the jade cup. He and the boat were being swept down with the current, utterly unable to resist this heavenly power. His body felt glued to the small boat; he wanted to rise with his sword, but it wouldn't obey.
He trembled, and looking down, he could already see Jiǔwěi’s cherry-like lips parting, her rosy tongue darting in and out.
“Jiǔwěi!”
Lin Zhao’s body erupted with sword intent, his eyes fixed on Jiǔwěi’s small lips. He roared, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll ruin your stomach? Go ahead and eat me if you dare!”
Saying this, he activated his ultimate skill. His three Hanyun Lake Flying Swords, five Immortal Swords, twelve Great Desolation Ancient Swords, and thirty-six Mayfly Flying Swords all swirled around him. Since he could not resist, he could only fight to the death within Jiǔwěi’s belly!
Just then, Lin Zhao suddenly felt a transcendent aura envelop the heavens and earth. Immediately, the surging lake water became still. He was still standing on the small boat, but the world had flipped upside down. The lake water was slowly flowing backward, as if the entire world had been reflected in a mirror.
In the distance, a willow leaf floated onto the lake’s surface. Standing on the willow leaf was a peerlessly beautiful woman in a blue long skirt, holding a long sword. She wore a white jade Daoist crown, exuding an unparalleled elegance. Her long skirt fluttered, and her eyes, unblemished by dust, gazed at Jiǔwěi not far away. She said gently with a smile, “A disciple of the Saint, how can you kill them?”
Jiǔwěi stood on the water’s surface, her red dress reflecting her exquisite figure in the water. She furrowed her delicate brows and chuckled, “I wondered who it was. So it’s the sect leader Wei from the Daoist Ancestral Court who has descended. I heard that in the upper realm, that Daoist Saint protected you, his junior sister, extremely well. Now you’ve actually deigned to descend to your death? Is the Daoist Ancestral Court truly out of capable people?”
The woman in the blue skirt, addressed as Sect Leader Wei, frowned. “The upper realm is in chaos, and the lower realm is also in chaos. As a Daoist cultivator, how could I, Wei Huarou, not descend the mountain? As for you, Jiǔwěi Qingqiu, I divined for you before descending. This journey where you, Lord Qingqiu, personally come to the human realm to commit evil, the divination shows great misfortune.”
“Oh!?”
Jiǔwěi laughed until her body shook, caressing her chest. “Tell me, Sect Leader Wei, which ‘misfortune’ are you referring to?”
The woman in the blue skirt smiled. “Such methods are sufficient to deceive ordinary men. Why use them on me, Wei Huarou? Now, I will protect Lin Zhao. Use whatever means you have.”
“Since Sect Leader Wei has said so, if I don’t employ some tactics, it would be disrespectful to the Daoist Ancestral Court.”
“Hmph!”
The woman in the blue skirt nodded and smiled, her gaze falling on Lin Zhao on the small boat not far away. She smiled faintly.
Lin Zhao felt a little awkward and could only smile in return. Who was this person? The sect leader of the Daoist Ancestral Court from the upper realm? He had never heard of her. In the presence of such sages, Lin Zhao felt like a frog at the bottom of a well.
…
Jiǔwěi suddenly attacked, inverting the jade cup and instantly transforming it into a divine artifact, intending to suppress her opponent within it. However, the woman in the blue skirt, imbued with true Daoist essence, looked up. Golden trigrams appeared around her sword as she thrust it skyward. Then, one became two, two became three, and more and more trigrams surged towards the sky, instantly reducing Jiǔwěi’s attack to dust.
“Hmph!”
Jiǔwěi retreated rapidly, raising her sleeves. Instantly, thousands of peach blossoms bloomed on the lake’s surface, creating a vibrant scene. Blood-colored thorns emerged from the peach branches and shot towards her.
The woman in the blue skirt, Wei Huarou, furrowed her brows and gently swung her long sword. The ground beneath her feet was as clear as a mirror. Wisps of true Daoist essence surged upwards, forming a vast expanse of azure trigrams that crushed Jiǔwěi’s illusions. But the moment the peach forest vanished, Jiǔwěi spun her body, transforming into a colossal figure that blotted out the sky. It was the fourteenth-realm avatar of Jiǔwěi, her claws descending, wreathed in potent demonic energy.
The woman in the blue skirt, Wei Huarou, rose into the air and manifested her own fourteenth-realm avatar: a golden celestial maiden with a long sword, her skirt fluttering. Sword light erupted, and intricate, dense Daoist essence rained down. Although she was not a fourteenth-realm sword cultivator, her Daoist essence was subtly gaining the upper hand against the fourteenth-realm Jiǔwěi.
Thunderclaps echoed through the heavens and earth.
It was a battle of gods and demons!
Jiǔwěi unleashed various demonic arts, dragging a great mountain through the air or conjuring a vast river, both cascading down. The potent demonic energy almost threatened to shatter the entire world. Lin Zhao, watching from afar, felt his heart skip a beat. However, wherever Wei Huarou’s sword light passed, all defilement was swept away. No matter what sorcery Jiǔwěi employed, it was dissolved with a single sword stroke.
…
Lin Zhao stood on the undulating small boat, witnessing the duel between two supreme beings of the human and demon races. He felt the spiritual currents within his own being surge. Although he was an outsider to this battle, where else would an ordinary person have such an opportunity to observe two fourteenth-realm sages clash so closely? Thus, even merely watching, Lin Zhao’s mental fortitude was greatly honed, and he gained immense benefit.
“Your demon race is truly greedy.”
Wei Huarou’s sword strokes fell one after another. The sword light condensed around her contained intricate Daoist trigrams. Her beautiful eyes gazed at Jiǔwěi and she said calmly, “It is one thing that the Unwavering Heart Demon in the upper realm is not being eliminated, but now your Ancestral Mountain dares to steal the entire human realm? The ‘vengeance and gratification’ you demons speak of is to hide behind human sages, feast to your fill, and then bite back?”
As she spoke, a sharp sword light descended. Jiǔwěi’s colossal avatar was repeatedly struck, with pieces of her shoulder and ear being severed. Her aura had become somewhat disheveled. Conversely, Wei Huarou remained at ease. Although both were in the fourteenth realm, Jiǔwěi’s savage heavenly dao was clearly no match for the pure essence of the Huang Ting Jing that Wei Huarou trod upon.
“Tsk tsk!”
At this moment, a figure approached from further across the lake. It was a middle-aged man, slightly hunched. He walked with his back bowed, a smile on his face, which was covered in mottled marks. “The esteemed Sect Leader Wei of the Daoist Ancestral Court, a one-on-one fight against our Lord Qingqiu, isn’t that a bit too much bullying? If that’s the case, adding me, Xu Changyou, shouldn’t be excessive, right?”
Another one, a thirteenth-realm great demon!
The man, who called himself Xu Changyou, flew across the lake, his body growing larger and larger until he transformed into a golden, four-eared giant ape. His massive body descended, heavily impacting the Daoist aura on Wei Huarou’s flank. Instantly, Wei Huarou’s body trembled slightly, and then several of Jiǔwěi’s innate arts rained down.
This is not good!
Lin Zhao frowned. He actually knew very well who Jiǔwěi was. She was someone who could rival the Demon Ancestor on the demon side. It was Jiǔwěi who had been sent by the demon race to negotiate with Mr. Qin at the Snow Region Heavenly Pool. How high was Jiǔwěi’s status? To put it bluntly, although inferior to the Confucian Saint, she was not far behind. And Wei Huarou was the junior sister of the Daoist Saint and one of the sect leaders of the Daoist Ancestral Court. In terms of status and strength, she should be on par with Jiǔwěi.
Originally, Wei Huarou’s combat power could suppress Jiǔwěi. Now, with the addition of the reckless Xu Changyou, the situation had begun to rapidly deteriorate. Wei Huarou’s trigrams were constantly shattered by Xu Changyou’s impacts, and Jiǔwěi seized the opportunity to counterattack. The Daoist restrictions set up by Wei Huarou were constantly being worn down, and she had fallen into a disadvantage.
Wei Huarou slashed through the air with her sword, striking Xu Changyou’s massive true form, tearing open its skin and nearly dismembering an arm. However, this great demon, who resided in the heartland of the human race, seemed impervious to pain. Instead, it became even more frenzied, laughing heartily, “Hahahaha~~~ Our demon race’s grand net has long been cast. We originally thought we were only catching small fish and shrimp like Lin Zhao, Huang Tingyu, and Su Qingjiu, but we never expected a Sect Leader Wei from the Daoist Ancestral Court to fall into our trap. Tsk, tsk, if we were to capture and kill Sect Leader Wei, what do you think this business would be worth?”
Wei Huarou smiled faintly, unfazed. At most, she would be unable to defeat them, but to be killed? They were truly overthinking it.
…
Lin Zhao watched with anxiety, realizing he had to find a way to break the stalemate.
With a lift of his hand, the flying sword Haoran hovered in his palm. With a trace of his Master’s divine power, he finally saw through the illusions before him. There were actually three layers of illusions in the world. The first layer was the sea of books secret realm conjured by Fu Sheng, which was currently trapping Huang Tingyu and Zhuo Zhi. The second illusion was the lake illusion conjured by Jiǔwěi. However, there was a third layer, which was the Huang Ting realm created by Sect Leader Wei of the Daoist family through her cultivation of the Huang Ting Jing, existing subtly between reality and illusion. This was Wei Huarou’s fallback.
Regardless, he had to break the deadlock first.
Lin Zhao raised his hand and flung the flying sword Haoran, saying sternly, “Zhuo Zhi, stab backward with your sword, quickly!”
With that, the flying sword Haoran shot out, accompanied by a cascade of golden radiance and Confucian true essence, piercing into the chaos like a sword qi imbued with the Confucian Saint’s true essence. Instantly, Fu Sheng’s sea of books secret realm, and those illusory Confucian techniques, encountered the Confucian Saint’s true essence and were shattered and annihilated. In an instant, Zhuo Zhi and Huang Tingyu were drawn out of the sea of books secret realm. The next moment, Zhuo Zhi turned and thrust his sword, with a sharp "chi" sound, directly into Fu Sheng’s abdomen, causing golden blood to spurt out.
“Ah?!”
Fu Sheng’s abdomen throbbed with pain, and his heart ached even more. His proud secret scroll of the sea of books, when confronted with Qin Suihan’s scholarship, was truly so不堪一击 (unable to withstand a single blow)?