IVYSCP - Chapter 110
Chapter 110
Ling Qingyue's heart jolted. For a moment she nearly believed Lou Wudu herself had come, but as the image dispersed and she made out who it really was, she saw that it was Cui Heng.
Cui Heng held her sword, her gaze cold and heavy.
The instant Cui Heng had struck, Pei Yin had already cast a concealment art. With Cui Heng's cultivation, she could not see through who they were.
Ling Qingyue looked at Cui Heng and caught something in the gaze turned her way, a crazed greed she recognized. It was the same way those fiends looked at her, the same way she had looked at Qiu Feng.
Staring at Ling Qingyue, Cui Heng's lips curved into a smile. A flick of her wrist sent several streaks of sword qi slashing forward, sword qi fierce and razor-sharp. Ling Qingyue and Pei Yin sidestepped out of the way. The next moment the vines in the courtyard suddenly sprang to life, lashing at the two with open hostility. This time, no matter how Ling Qingyue released her spiritual energy, the vines ignored her entirely.
Ling Qingyue narrowed her eyes. She spotted Cui Heng's other hand, fingers subtly working a technique. Cui Heng was controlling the vines.
Using the vines to tangle up Pei Yin, Cui Heng's sword reached Ling Qingyue in a flash.
Ling Qingyue raised her sword to block, her feet skidding backward across the green stone floor.
Pei Yin gave a slight frown and slammed a palm into the vines before her, shattering the entire mass. Her figure swept forward like a ghost, terrifyingly fast.
Ling Qingyue had already been forced out of the hall. Five or six vines behind her locked onto her limbs, trying to bind her. She tilted her head slightly, cast them a single glance, and paid them no further mind.
Cui Heng's attacks were far too purposeful. She was coming for her.
Ling Qingyue was just about to speak, to probe, when she caught a flash of dark red deep in Cui Heng's eyes.
Cui Heng abruptly channeled spiritual energy into her longsword and pressed forward with crushing force.
"Crack—"
A fissure split the wooden sword from the middle.
Cui Heng's smile widened. A split second later the smile froze. She spun around to block a palm strike seething with lethal intent.
Surging golden spiritual energy nearly lit up the entire side hall. The vines that had been poised to strike recoiled back into the shadows.
Under that single palm, Cui Heng's longsword scattered into shards of broken blade. Her whole body flew backward and smashed hard into the fractured hall wall. The wall collapsed, rubble cascading down to bury her.
Cui Heng lay on the ground and coughed up blood. The blood stained her eyes a deep scarlet.
Pei Yin reached Ling Qingyue's side. Anxiously she seized her hand and checked her over from head to toe. "Are you all right?"
Ling Qingyue shook her head.
Pei Yin looked down at the wooden sword in her hand. A touch of spiritual energy, and the crack visibly sealed, golden lines spreading over the surface.
Ling Qingyue gave it a casual flourish and lifted her eyes, smiling at Pei Yin. "It looks good."
A plain, ordinary wooden sword, not even a trace of decoration. It had nothing to do with looking good. Only the golden spiritual energy now flowing across it added a faint touch of color.
The corners of Pei Yin's lips lifted. Then her icy gaze swept toward Cui Heng, who was struggling to her feet ahead.
Cui Heng staggered up. She reached into the air, and the shattered blade shards reassembled into a longsword, the blade surging with violent spiritual energy.
Ling Qingyue's smile gradually receded. Meeting Cui Heng's murderous eyes, she frowned.
Something was wrong.
Although Cui Heng had looked at her with killing intent both before and now, the two gazes were not the same. Before, her eyes had held greed she could not fully conceal. Now, her eyes held nothing but a bloodthirsty desire to kill.
As if the person had suddenly changed.
"Be careful." Ling Qingyue murmured. "She's not right."
Pei Yin narrowed her eyes slightly. She too had noticed the difference in Cui Heng. With a faint crook of her fingers, the God-Striking Whip was in her hand.
Just as they expected, Cui Heng's speed surpassed her earlier display, and her cultivation level had abruptly soared.
The afterimages of her sword were so fast they were nothing but false blurs. The wind whipped up by the blade stung their faces.
Ling Qingyue raised her hand to deflect a blade of sword qi. The force numbed her wrist and the web of her hand. The wooden sword nearly flew from her grip.
She had no doubt at all: without Pei Yin's spiritual energy reinforcing the sword body, her little wooden sword would have been reduced to dust on the spot.
Ling Qingyue had crossed swords with Cui Heng before. She knew exactly how strong Cui Heng was, and she knew even better how strong the person behind Cui Heng was.
The sword in her hand trembled. Ling Qingyue's throat went dry. She raised her eyes and fixed them dead on Cui Heng, who was walking toward her in unhurried steps.
Fog slowly obscured her sight. Cui Heng's figure grew blurred and indistinct. Her silhouette overlapped perfectly with that of another person.
When she blinked again, only Cui Heng remained.
"Who are you?" Ling Qingyue asked.
Cui Heng's lips curled into a smile. She lifted her chin, looking down at Ling Qingyue with undisguised condescension. Disheveled as she was, her expression was still contemptuous. She asked in return, "Who do you think I am?"
Ling Qingyue drew the faintest breath and tightened her grip on the sword.
When she raised her eyes again, the grief in them was gone. Only resolve remained.
In a single breath, the three clashed amid bursts of light and shadow, exchanging over a hundred moves within the side hall.
Ling Qingyue's cultivation was a full tier lower, and she was here only in spirit-body form. After deflecting several strikes, her divine sense had already grown unstable. Her form was gradually becoming translucent.
Seeing this, Pei Yin shielded Ling Qingyue behind her and met Cui Heng's sword moves head-on.
The God-Striking Whip coiled around the blade. Unable to pull her sword free, Cui Heng's eyes fell on the two of them. She snorted. "So it's only divine sense."
After speaking, she turned her gaze back to Ling Qingyue, a trace of disappointment in her eyes.
Pei Yin snapped her wrist. The God-Striking Whip shot up the blade like a coiling dragon, driving straight for Cui Heng.
A direct strike was about to land on Cui Heng's chest. Cui Heng twisted her hand and drew a second sword, deflecting the whip back.
That sword flashed past, bringing with it an immense oppressive force. Ling Qingyue still saw it clearly. Her face drained of color.
It was Shangbieli!
Lou Wudu's lifebound dharma sword.
Pei Yin shielded Ling Qingyue and retreated, a sweep of her long sleeves repelling the oncoming sword qi.
The scattered sword qi struck around the side hall. Stone shards flew everywhere, and the ground shook and trembled.
On the other side, Nie Wenxiao rushed over at the sound. When she saw Cui Heng, she immediately drew her blade and slashed at her.
Cui Heng shot her a glance, her eyes brimming with disdain. She raised her sword to block Nie Wenxiao's blade, then thrust out a palm across the locked weapons to blast her back.
The palm force shot through the crossed blades straight toward Nie Wenxiao's heart. Nie Wenxiao's expression changed drastically. She hastily withdrew her blade and summoned a protective artifact to block.
The heart-protecting jade shield shattered bit by bit. Nie Wenxiao forcibly swallowed the coppery tang rising in her throat. Steadying herself, she dropped hard to one knee. She stared at Cui Heng in utter disbelief. "How…?"
"Sect Leader!"
"Sect Leader!"
The junior disciples of the Piaomiao Sect had followed her over. Seeing their sect leader on her knees, face ashen and unable to rise, every one of them drew blades and swords, furious and ready to charge.
Nie Wenxiao saw this and, ignoring the crushing pain in her chest, shouted, "Don't! Fall back!"
She could not even block her opponent's strikes. If these children went, they would be walking to their deaths.
The disciples halted in their tracks, glaring at Cui Heng with fury-filled eyes.
Fortunately, Cui Heng paid them no mind. She raised a hand and flexed her fingers in the air. Receiving the command, the surrounding vines all lunged for Nie Wenxiao and the disciples.
With no one else to bother her, Cui Heng looked at the two before her. She murmured to herself, "Divine sense is fine too. If I shatter your divine sense here, it will keep you both out of my way long enough."
Divine sense was linked to the soul. If forcibly scattered, the true body would suffer enormous harm. At best, the soul would be damaged, requiring months of recovery. At worst, body and spirit would perish, soul utterly extinguished.
Ling Qingyue's breath caught. The words had rolled off Cui Heng's tongue as if they meant nothing at all.
Cui Heng's next sword strikes came faster and even more viciously. Pei Yin met each one. The two fought entangled, neither able to gain the upper hand. The shockwaves from clashing spiritual energy came wave after wave. For a hundred li around, the spiritual qi fell out of balance, and the sky bore down dark and heavy.
In an instant, torrential rain poured.
Everyone had spiritual energy shielding them. Not a single drop stained their clothes. They remained perfectly dry within the hazy downpour.
Ling Qingyue had stayed at Pei Yin's side throughout, protected. She understood clearly now that the duel unfolding between those two was beyond anything she could join.
Raising a hand, she seized control of the rain around her and infused it with sword qi. Ling Qingyue's brows hardened. She thrust her palm forward. "Go!"
The rain droplets laced with sword qi instantly transformed into a thousand short blades, closing in around Cui Heng like an inescapable net.
Cui Heng had been forcibly breaking through the array formation beneath her feet. When the rain-dagger barrage struck, she swept a blade through them. The droplets evaporated in an instant, mist billowing up, and then a beam of golden light pierced straight through the fog.
Cui Heng's eyes flew wide. She tried to raise a hand to block, but that whip strike came too fast, and it was utterly merciless.
The God-Striking Whip lashed down from above, solidly striking her body. It cut diagonally from her right shoulder across her heart. Blood gushed out, soaking through her dharma robe.
Falling from midair, Cui Heng drove her sword into the ground to steady herself. Sweat streamed down her forehead. Her lips had gone white with pain.
Ling Qingyue stared at Cui Heng and saw that the look in her eyes had not changed at all. Her brows slowly knit.
Could I be wrong…?
Cui Heng had transformed too drastically, her strength soaring, so Ling Qingyue had assumed Lou Wudu was controlling Cui Heng by some method. But after taking a full strike from the God-Striking Whip, Cui Heng had not reacted.
If Lou Wudu had been controlling Cui Heng, a single lash of the whip should have severed that link entirely.
Why is there no reaction…?
While Ling Qingyue racked her mind with no answer, Cui Heng suddenly turned her blade and rushed toward Nie Wenxiao on the other side.
Pei Yin saw it and flashed forward to intercept.
Cui Heng saw Pei Yin appear before her eyes. Her lips curved high, malice thick in her voice. "Immortal Venerable, you're mistaken."
Behind Cui Heng, a longsword materialized, then shot toward Ling Qingyue with the speed of lightning and thunder. Wherever it passed, the green stone slabs ripped up, inch by inch. The force was terrifying.
The moment the words left her lips, Shangbieli was already bearing down before Ling Qingyue's eyes.
"BOOM—!!!"
The thunderclap shook heaven and earth, yet it still could not drown out that explosive roar from within the royal city of Yuelou.
Amid the dust and debris swirling in the air, the ground was a wreck, and only a single figure stood there, expression dark.
Gone. Everyone was gone. Ling Qingyue, Pei Yin, and the Piaomiao Sect people too.
Cui Heng shifted her jaw, biting into the inside of her cheek. She raised a hand and recalled Shangbieli.
"I was mistaken?"
The woman's cold, clear voice rang out, echoing through the empty hall courtyard.
Cui Heng clenched her teeth, sensing Shangbieli within her sea of consciousness depart along with that other will.
In the Demon Palace of the Great Wilderness, the two women's divine sense returned to their true bodies. Ling Qingyue let out a breath and felt the chill that had permeated her entire body.
She had no time for that. She immediately turned her head to look at Pei Yin.
Pei Yin slowly opened her eyes, the chill in them not yet fully faded. She pressed her lips together, her complexion somewhat pale.
Ling Qingyue grasped her hand and brought the other to her face. "How are you? Are you all right?"
Pei Yin blinked, then covered the hand on her cheek with her own. Her features softened. "I'm fine."
Ling Qingyue looked at her, still worried. "Really?"
"Really." Pei Yin nodded. "Don't worry. Nie Wenxiao and the disciples have already been sent back to the Piaomiao Sect. They're fine too."
Using a teleportation array to cover such a great distance… it must have consumed an enormous amount of spiritual energy.
Ling Qingyue's fingers settled on Pei Yin's wrist. As expected, she detected a deficit of spiritual energy within her body.
Pei Yin smiled at her, caught her hand, and brought it to her lips for a kiss. "Did I do well?"
The words on Ling Qingyue's lips paused. Inwardly, she turned the phrase over.
Is she asking for a reward?
Ling Qingyue thought for a moment, then leaned over and pressed a kiss to the corner of her lips. "Extremely well."
Pei Yin's brows and eyes curved, but she was not satisfied. She traced Ling Qingyue's fingers, from the tips down to the base.
Ling Qingyue's face flushed. She pulled back and muttered, "Your face is pale from spiritual energy depletion and you're already thinking about that kind of thing. So improper."
Pei Yin raised an eyebrow slightly. "What am I thinking about?"
Ling Qingyue glanced at her, then pointedly dropped her eyes to their clasped hands. "You know perfectly well."
Pei Yin shook her head. "I don't know at all."
Ling Qingyue: "…"
She pulled her hand free and, just before leaving, gave Pei Yin's hand a light smack. A crisp "pa" sounded.
Pei Yin laughed aloud and brought out spirit stones to replenish herself.
Watching her set up the array, Ling Qingyue could not help asking, "Do you think it was her?"
Besides that one possibility, Ling Qingyue could not think of anything else that could make Cui Heng change as if she had become a different person. Her eyes had changed, her cultivation had soared, and she could even wield Lou Wudu's lifebound dharma sword, Shangbieli.
Ling Qingyue did not believe Lou Wudu would trust Cui Heng to such an extent, to the point of giving her own sword for Cui Heng to use.
"The God-Striking Whip struck her." Pei Yin's fingertip touched a spirit stone, spiritual qi flowing along her finger into her meridians.
The God-Striking Whip had hit Cui Heng, but there had been no reaction.
Ling Qingyue looked at Pei Yin.
So it wasn't Lou Wudu?
"But I think, it was her."
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