[CG Unlock Progress +20%]
[CG Unlock Progress: 50%]
As that cold, emotionless progress bar ticked upward within his sea of consciousness, the last shred of wishful thinking in Gu Chengming's heart vanished like smoke.
Fine. This was nailed down now, set in iron.
Had it not been for the CG of Heart Is All Things, he never could have imagined that this second-place genius of the Hidden Dragon Ranking—so cool and self-possessed before others—could be linked to such utterly repressed thoughts.
Gu Chengming rubbed the spot between his brows.
Well, at least for him, if this Fellow Daoist Xu merely thought about it in her own heart, that was no great harm.
After all, judging by the present situation, this Fellow Daoist Xu was, on the surface at least, still quite reserved.
Over the next few days, Gu Chengming's contact with Xu Huayi gradually increased.
It was not deliberate. Setting up the Heaven-Watching, Earth-Listening Formation simply required the cooperation of the Myriad Wonders Assembly's authority, and on top of that, both of them were core figures stationed at Snowfall Pass by their respective powers, so official exchanges naturally grew frequent.
On the second morning, Gu Chengming had just finished handling several pieces of intelligence relayed through the Myriad Wonders Assembly when he received Xu Huayi's message talisman.
[The training grounds. The formation-improvement plan is complete. Please review it, Fellow Daoist Gu.]
Gu Chengming put away the jade slip, rose, and went out.
At the training grounds, Xu Huayi had already been waiting for some time.
That earlier mishap had given her a painful lesson, and she had spent the entire night reworking the full deployment scheme.
At this moment, three shrunken formation diagrams hovered before her, each densely covered with her annotations.
"Fellow Daoist Gu, you've come."
She lifted her head, her expression composed, showing not the slightest awkwardness or evasiveness over yesterday's affair.
Gu Chengming, however, felt a subtle stirring within. So just how exactly was this Fellow Daoist Xu able to so completely suppress the true thoughts in her heart, betraying not the faintest trace?
[The Qingxin Formula covered her mouth and chuckled softly, teasing: Our little Sword-Champion ought to take some lessons. They say boys can never resist this kind of contrast—it's far more useful than any sweet talk.]
Gu Chengming thought to himself: pure, baseless slander!
[The Huiyuan Sword Formula was half-believing, but in the end righteously declared: If it liked someone, it would boldly show it—it would never hide it away in its heart.]
[And having said that, it secretly stole a glance at Gu Chengming, somewhat conflicted: Would Chengming really like that sort of thing?]
Don't believe her, Mama Huiyuan—the Qingxin Formula is just messing with you.
Gu Chengming sent over a stream of soothing thoughts to comfort the Huiyuan Sword Formula, and rather helplessly told the Qingxin Formula to stop teasing it so much.
On the surface, of course, he revealed nothing. Splitting his mind two ways, he listened through Xu Huayi's new deployment scheme.
Plan A was the most prudent: it would shrink the formation's coverage by thirty percent, completely avoiding the ley-line interference in the Hawk's Sorrow Ravine region, at the cost of creating a surveillance blind spot to the northwest. Plan B maintained the original coverage, but required advancing in three stages, taking roughly twenty days—at the demon tide's current rate of approach, it might just barely make it in time.
After mulling it over for a moment, he chose Plan B. Caution above all, and twenty days would just barely be enough.
Xu Huayi nodded slightly, then extended an invitation, asking him to observe and offer corrections nearby if he had nothing else to do.
Gu Chengming had no objection.
For the better part of the day that followed, Gu Chengming remained at the training grounds, watching Xu Huayi step by step transform that intricate formation diagram into actual formation patterns.
Unlike yesterday's recklessness, today she seemed exceptionally steady.
Before each stroke fell, she would repeatedly confirm the flow of the ley lines and the circulation of spiritual power; at the embedding of every node, she would pause to feel it out carefully, ensuring there was not the slightest deviation.
This almost severe rigor reminded Gu Chengming of his own younger self when he first studied the sword Dao—that kind of devotion to the Dao could not be faked.
Of course, the Gu Chengming of those days hadn't done it for the sword Dao, but rather for the Great Dao of chasing girls...
But then again, all daos share one source. If someone truly loved chasing girls as much as he did, that really would be worthy of his admiration.
As dusk drew near, the first stage of deployment was finally complete.
Xu Huayi put away her judge's brush, a fine sheen of sweat beading on her forehead—clearly the toll had been considerable—but her eyes held a hint of satisfaction.
"Many thanks for accompanying me today, Fellow Daoist Gu." She gave him a slight bow. "With you by my side, my heart was much more at ease."
Gu Chengming waved a hand. "You overstate it, Fellow Daoist Xu. If anything, it was I who benefited greatly today."
That was not mere courtesy.
Certain techniques Xu Huayi used while laying out the formation had genuinely opened his eyes, especially her unique approach of channeling painting into formation, which shared an unexpected, ingeniously similar quality with the sword Dao he practiced.
The two of them exchanged a smile and went their separate ways.
When he returned to the side courtyard, the heart-voice of the midnight hour came right on schedule.
Gu Chengming turned a deaf ear, rolled into bed, and soon sank into dreams.
Mm—a gentleman judges by deeds, not by the heart.
On the third day, Snowfall Pass was met with a rare heavy snowfall.
Snowflakes like goose down fell from the sky, and in less than half a day they had draped the entire fortress-town in a thick coat of silver.
Such weather was unsuited for laying formations, so Xu Huayi simply suspended the work in her hands and instead made a request of Gu Chengming.
"I'd like to take a walk through the town."
She stood beneath the eaves of the Northern Garrison Manor, gazing at the snow filling the sky. "The orders that come from the Capital are always so cold—strategic stronghold this, gateway of the Northern Territory that—but hearing such things is never the same as seeing them with one's own eyes."
Gu Chengming glanced at her and nodded.
"As it happens, I have a few places I need to inspect myself."
One behind the other, the two left the Northern Garrison Manor and stepped into the wind and snow.
Though Snowfall Pass was a key border garrison, the breath of daily life within its walls was far richer than Xu Huayi had imagined.
Shops lined both sides of the streets—taverns and teahouses, cloth shops and grain stores, everything one could want. Though the passersby moved with hurried steps, their faces bore little trace of dread.
Perhaps these common folk did not know of the coming demon tide, or perhaps they had long grown accustomed to such a precarious existence; in any case, they still earnestly lived out each and every day.
Xu Huayi followed behind Gu Chengming, her gaze sweeping over those ordinary faces one by one.
An old man selling candied haws, children chasing and roughhousing, a woman with a carrying-pole hawking hot soup, an old soldier rubbing his hands for warmth in the snow...
She said nothing, but her steps grew slower and slower.
When she reached a porridge shed, she stopped.
It was a porridge-relief station set up by the Snowfall Pass garrison, specifically to aid the refugees displaced by war or natural disaster.
Although heavy snow was swirling at this moment, a long line still stretched before the shed.
Xu Huayi stood to one side and watched for a long while.
She watched those ragged refugees, watched the way they cradled coarse clay bowls and sipped their porridge with such care, watched the children hiding behind the adults who stole glances at her...
After a long time, she suddenly spoke up: "Fellow Daoist Gu, tell me—what do we cultivate for?"
Gu Chengming's steps halted, and he turned his head to look at her.
Xu Huayi's gaze still rested on those refugees, her tone carrying a hint of emotion:
"I've heard the cultivators of the Tianding Sect say it—most claim it's for longevity, for carefree freedom... But I always feel that if cultivation is only for oneself, then how are we any different from those wild demon beasts of the mountains and fields?"
"In the past I often heard the elder generation say a phrase: to stand firm between Heaven and Earth, with all the people held in one's heart."
She turned her head and looked at Gu Chengming, a touch of earnestness in her eyes:
"To be honest, I used to think those words were too grand, too empty. But now, truly standing here upon this frontier and watching these common folk, I suddenly understand a little."
"These people—perhaps they are one of the very meanings of my cultivation."
[Hearing these words, the Zhouli Heavenly Harmony Righteous Heart Method, at this moment, actually nodded slightly as well.]
[Though she is a female cultivator, and rather shameless in her improper fancies regarding men and women—yet all mortals have private desires; even sages can scarcely escape the common lot.]
[A gentleman is judged by his deeds, not by his heart; judge by the heart, and there is no flawless soul in this world. So long as one's eyes hold the living masses, one's conduct holds to law and measure, and one does not spare oneself in the face of great matters—then one may be called undiminished in the great virtues.]
Gu Chengming was silent for a moment, then nodded:
"In these words of yours, Fellow Daoist Xu, this Gu profoundly concurs."
He said no more, but his impression of this Tianding Sect prodigy had risen by another few notches.
Anyone could talk a good game, but to come to Snowfall Pass under such dangerous circumstances at least proved she was not the sort of hypocrite who only knew how to spout grand words.
In the time that followed, the two visited several more places.
The military camp, the medical hall, the workshops, the city walls...
Xu Huayi observed very carefully, from time to time asking Gu Chengming about details of frontier life. Watching her humble, eager-to-learn manner, Gu Chengming couldn't help but feel a few stirrings of emotion.
If only the officials sent from the Capital all had this kind of mindset, the Great Qian's frontier likely would not have rotted to such a state.
The seventh day.
The second stage of the Heaven-Watching, Earth-Listening Formation was formally completed, a full two days ahead of expectation.
On this day Xu Huayi rarely rested, while Gu Chengming continued his daily patrol work.
The patrol route of Snowfall Pass was fixed: starting from the East Gate, passing through the military camp, the armory, and the granary, and finally ending at the West Gate.
As he reached the vicinity of the granary, Gu Chengming suddenly stopped.
A cluster of children were gathered on the open ground outside the granary, chattering away over some bit of excitement.
Gu Chengming drew near and saw that at the center of the clearing stood a low table, spread with xuan paper, and a familiar figure was holding a brush and painting.
It was Xu Huayi.
Today she had changed into a plain white robe, her long hair casually held up with a wooden hairpin, giving her an air of fresh, ethereal elegance.
At this moment she was lowering her head, absorbed in painting, deaf to the noise of the children around her. Those children were mostly the offspring of Snowfall Pass commoners, young in age—the smallest looked to be only five or six. They crowded around Xu Huayi, eyes wide as they watched the painting take shape beneath her brush, now and then letting out cries of amazement.
"Wah! It's a big tiger!"
"No, no, that's a lion!"
"It is not—that's clearly... what was it again?"
"Dummy, that's a qilin! My pa told me, the qilin is an auspicious beast—if you see one, good things will happen!"
The children argued back and forth in a babble of voices. The corners of Xu Huayi's lips curved up slightly, but she did not speak to correct them.
She only kept painting, and the qilin beneath her brush grew more and more lifelike, as though it might leap off the paper at any moment.
At last, the final stroke fell.
Xu Huayi set down her brush, gently blew on the not-yet-dry ink, then raised her head and smiled at the children: "There. It's finished."
"Wahh—!"
The children let out a cheer in unison, scrambling forward to look at the painting.
Xu Huayi did not stop them, only smiling as she cautioned: "Be careful—don't touch the ink."
"Big sister, big sister, this qilin is so pretty!" A little girl with hair tied in horn-buns lifted her face and asked. "What's its name?"
Xu Huayi thought for a moment, then answered: "Let's just call it Furui. I hope it can bring you all good fortune."
"Furui! Furui!"
The children excitedly repeated the name, innocent smiles brimming on their faces.
Damn, Furui my ass.
Gu Chengming snarked inwardly, yet watching this scene he found himself unconsciously smiling.
Just as he was thinking this, Xu Huayi seemed to sense something and lifted her head to look his way.
Their eyes met. A flicker of surprise crossed her face, followed by a faint, shallow smile—a greeting of sorts.
Gu Chengming nodded, did not go over to disturb them, and turned to continue his patrol.
Behind him, the children's laughter gradually faded into the distance.
The eighth day, the ninth day, the tenth day...
The days passed one by one, and the deployment of the Heaven-Watching, Earth-Listening Formation advanced steadily.
At the same time, the stirrings over in the Demon Domain grew greater and greater.
The intelligence relayed through the Myriad Wonders Assembly showed that demon-beast activity along the border line had increased by more than thirty percent over the norm, and that quite a few second-realm and even third-realm high-tier demon beasts had appeared.
This was the harbinger of a demon tide about to erupt.
The atmosphere within Snowfall Pass grew tense accordingly.
The soldiers patrolling the streets doubled in number, all the restrictions atop the city walls were activated, and heavy troops were stationed before the armory and granary.
The common folk, once fairly at ease, also began to stockpile grain and medicinal herbs in preparation for the coming war.
On this day, Gu Chengming and Xu Huayi once again stood atop the city wall, gazing out at the snowfield beyond the pass.
Compared with a few days ago, that snowfield now held many more black dots. Those were the traces left by demon beasts moving through the snow—dense and teeming, a chilling sight.
On the eleventh day, the Heaven-Watching, Earth-Listening Formation was formally completed.
The council hall of Snowfall Pass.
An enormous sand table occupied the center of the hall, dotted densely with black command flags marking the demon beasts' movements.
Xu Huayi, clad in azure with her long hair bound up, stood before the sand table, her white-jade judge's brush tracing red lines across the map, her expression focused, betraying not the slightest sign of the fatigue these days had accumulated.
Gu Chengming pushed open the door and entered.
Seeing him come in, Xu Huayi nodded slightly, her gaze clear and open. "You've come at just the right time, Fellow Daoist Gu. There's a new discovery regarding the demon tide's movements."
Gu Chengming returned a salute without changing expression and walked over to the sand table. "Please, go on, Fellow Daoist Xu."
Xu Huayi pointed the tip of her brush toward the snowfield to the north. "In the past, beast tides mostly arose because of the bitter cold of harsh winter—food grew scarce in the depths of the snowfield, and low-tier demon beasts instinctively migrated south to forage. Such beast tides, though vast in number, never amounted to much."
"This time it's different."
Her brush turned, pointing at several clusters of red dots. "According to the intelligence within the Myriad Wonders Assembly, and from my observation of the stars last night, the proportion of beasts above the second realm in this group assaulting the frontier is abnormally high. They advance and retreat with order, and know to gather outside the formations—very likely there are high-tier demon clans directing them in unison from behind."
Gu Chengming looked at those command flags and pondered: "This matter is the scheme of a great demon within the Demon Domain?"
"Precisely. But that is not the worst of it."
Xu Huayi raised her head, her gaze deep and grave: "What truly worries me is the number of fourth-realm great demons in this demon tide."
"Ordinarily, for a probing offensive, having one or two fourth-realm Demon Sovereigns presiding is already the limit. With no fifth-realm appearing, the fourth realm is the peak fighting force—and every Demon Sovereign has its own territory and pride, making joint action exceedingly difficult." Xu Huayi pointed at several names on the intelligence summary. "But look—just from what's been confirmed so far, the auras of three fourth-realm great demons have already appeared at the front."
"To mobilize on such a scale—this is absolutely not just about seizing provisions or venting spite by killing a few human cultivators."
Gu Chengming took up the thread, his gaze shifting slightly: "What they want is Snowfall Pass."
"Exactly." Xu Huayi said. "Only a scheme to break Snowfall Pass can explain why this pack of Demon Sovereigns—who normally can't stand the sight of one another—would join forces to this degree. They mean to exploit the gap left by Director Zhou's grave wounds and Senior Luo's absence to tear open a corner of the Great Qian's Northern Territory once and for all."
Their eyes met, each reading the meaning in the other's gaze.
If the goal was to take the city, a frontal war of attrition alone was clearly not enough.
Snowfall Pass had been maintained for several hundred years; its city-protecting grand formation was connected to the ley lines. Even with several Demon Sovereigns assaulting in concert, they couldn't hope to break it in less than ten days or half a month—unless there were a surprise force.
"Hawk's Sorrow Ravine."
Almost simultaneously, the two blurted it out.
Gu Chengming strode quickly to the detailed map on the wall and jabbed his finger hard at that long, narrow rift valley to the northwest of Snowfall Pass.
That place had once been a stronghold where the Myriad Gold Pavilion concealed forbidden drugs—its location hidden, its terrain treacherous.
Recalling the earlier clues, the threads in his mind grew ever clearer: "When we uncovered the forbidden drugs, we destroyed the ice cavern, but we never went deeper to investigate the abyss below."
Xu Huayi continued: "When I was setting up the Heaven-Watching, Earth-Listening Formation, I once tried to extend my perception there, but I met with a backlash of demonic energy and the interference of grievous resentment. At the time I took it for the residual aura of the Green-Scaled Hawk King—but thinking on it now, I fear it's not so simple."
The two made an immediate decision, resolving to go personally to Hawk's Sorrow Ravine and investigate.
Hawk's Sorrow Ravine—the place was true to its name.
The sheer cliffs on either side, as though hewn by knife and axe, stabbed straight into the clouds, perpetually shrouded in grey-white miasma. The cold wind, knifing through the gorge, gave off a howl like wailing ghosts and shrieking wolves.
Gu Chengming and Xu Huayi concealed their forms, weaving among the cliffs.
The deeper they went, the more pungent the rank, gamy stench in the air, mingled with a certain cloying, rotten sweetness.
"The concentration of demonic energy here is more than several times higher than what the patrolling rogue cultivators reported." Xu Huayi transmitted, gripping her judge's brush tightly. "And this resentment is far too heavy."
Gu Chengming said nothing; instead he activated the Red Dust Art. In his field of perception, the originally grey-white depths of the gorge churned with a dense, unmelting black-red mist.
His heart sank slightly. Gu Chengming quickened his pace, pressing deeper along that resentful energy.
The gorge was strewn with jagged rocks and withered trees sprouting crosswise, a decayed reek rushing at their faces. One ahead, one behind, they descended along the winding mountain path toward the valley floor.
The deeper they went, the more intense that resentful energy became.
When they reached the halfway point, Gu Chengming suddenly stopped.
His gaze fell upon a stretch of rock wall by the path, and his expression tightened slightly.
Carved upon that rock wall were some strange runes that looked like part of a formation of some kind.
The runes were a dark red, faintly suffused with demonic energy—clearly not wrought by human cultivators' hands.
"A demon-clan restriction."
Xu Huayi stepped forward, studied it carefully for a moment, then spoke: "I've seen this kind of rune in the classics of the Tianding Sect. It's a means the demon clans use to seal off space and cut off auras."
"Which means that if there's any commotion in this valley, the outside world wouldn't be able to detect it."
Hearing this, Gu Chengming's brows knit even tighter.
When they had investigated the forbidden-drug case before, they had come to Hawk's Sorrow Ravine as well, but had not gone deep into the valley floor.
Now it seemed the true secret was hidden behind this restriction.
"Can you break it, Fellow Daoist Xu?" he said to her.
Xu Huayi nodded, her judge's brush sweeping through the air. Formation patterns surged forth one after another like flowing water, colliding with that dark-red demon-clan restriction.
A piercing drone rose up. The two forces deadlocked for a moment, then the demon-clan restriction shattered inch by inch like broken glass.
Rounding that rock wall, the view ahead suddenly opened wide.
At the bottom of the karst cavern, white bones lay heaped like a mountain, and from that mountain of bones hung hundreds of not-yet-fully-decayed corpses—human corpses: the old, women and children, and more than these, the able-bodied young.
They had been disemboweled like livestock, their blood drawn out by some uncanny formation, converging into crimson rivulets that flowed toward a blood pool at the cavern's center.
In the blood pool, several enormous black cauldrons devoured the essence-blood, radiating an eerie red glow. More chilling still, above the pool lingered a dense ripple of fourth-realm demonic power—that was the aura of the Green-Scaled Hawk King.
The hand with which Xu Huayi normally held her brush so steadily now trembled with fury, her knuckles white from the force of her grip.
So this was the reason its wounds had healed so quickly.
No wonder the Hawk King had not shown itself; no wonder it turned a blind eye to the commotion of the outside world. It simply had no need to go out. What the Myriad Gold Pavilion had smuggled in along those routes over the years was not merely forbidden drugs—it was, I'm afraid, this endless stream of living people as well.
"This monstrous beast!"
Xu Huayi drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the killing intent in her heart, and said in a low voice: "Fellow Daoist Gu, the resentment of these commoners after death is too heavy. Their souls are trapped in this place, tormented by this blood pool, unable to find rebirth... I wish to see them off on their way."
Gu Chengming nodded, stepped back half a pace, and stood guard with sword in hand: "Do as you will."
Xu Huayi closed her eyes, steadied her breathing, and with a gentle turn of her wrist, the judge's brush traced a soft arc through the void.
What flowed from the brush-tip was a faint trace of pink.
That pink suffused outward through the air, becoming petals filling the sky, drifting lightly down.
Flowers bloomed from withered bones; the blood pool faded from sight.
Xu Huayi's brush moved like the wind, painting a landscape pastoral scene in the void.
Fragrant grasses fresh and lovely, fallen blossoms in riotous profusion. The white-haired elderly and the tuft-haired young, content and joyful at their ease.
As the scroll unfurled, the black-red resentment coiling about the corpses slowly dispersed, turning into points of fluorescent light that melted into the peach grove and flowing streams within the painting.
Xu Huayi softly chanted, and as the final stroke fell, she buried all the heaped white bones beneath the green hills within the painting.
Drawing the painting into a peach-blossom spring, thereby to bury all living beings.
She withdrew her brush and stood, her form swaying slightly, her face somewhat pale.
Gu Chengming stepped forward and offered her a Qi-Restoring Pill: "Are you all right?"
"It's nothing."
Xu Huayi shook her head. She took the pill but did not swallow it, only gripping it tightly in her hand.
"Let's go. The matter of this place brooks no delay—we still need to report to the deputy general of Snowfall Pass as quickly as possible."
But just then, Gu Chengming's expression suddenly turned grim.
"Fellow Daoist Gu?" Xu Huayi sensed something amiss.
Gu Chengming did not answer at once; his divine sense was immersed in the suddenly erupting flood of messages from the [Myriad Wonders Assembly].
"There's no time."
"What?" Xu Huayi was startled.
"The demon tide has already begun."
Gu Chengming turned his head, his gaze cutting through the narrow sliver of sky above the gorge, looking toward the direction of Snowfall Pass.
"The frontal battlefield has already erupted. At least three fourth-realm great demons are striking simultaneously, fiercely assaulting the main formation of Snowfall Pass."
Xu Huayi's face changed abruptly: "Then we should rush back now—"
"We can't get back, and there'd be no point. Since the frontal assault has begun, then the hidden hand on this side should be moving too."
As if to confirm his words, the space deep in the gorge suddenly began to distort violently.
"They mean to pass through here and strike directly into the rear of Snowfall Pass."
Gu Chengming gripped the [Evil-Repeller] in his hand, his momentum rising higher and higher, forcing back all the wind and snow around him.
He turned his head and looked at Xu Huayi:
"Fellow Daoist Xu, it seems today we're to play the part of gatekeepers here."
This was Hawk's Sorrow Ravine—a single sliver of sky, the one road that must be passed to reach the rear of Snowfall Pass.
Xu Huayi was stunned for a moment, then understood Gu Chengming's intent.
She showed not the slightest retreat—on the contrary, she began to smile.
"Very well."
Her slender hand lifted lightly, the judge's brush carving a sharp arc through the air, drawing a deep boundary line before that formation-foundation.
"Since it is Fellow Daoist Gu who invites me, today let this beast learn that this road is closed."
The wind and snow surged fierce; killing intent filled the wilds.
A karst cavern somewhere underground.
The dark-red blood pool roiled and boiled at the cavern's center, the sounds of bursting blood bubbles rising and falling one after another in that deathly silent space. A figure was half-submerged in the bloody water.
That was the Green-Scaled Hawk King.
His enormous azure wings drooped feebly over the edge of the blood pool, the flesh at his wounds turned outward, deep enough to lay bare the bone.
Those wounds showed no sign of healing—on the contrary, a sharp sword intent clung to them, ceaselessly eroding his life-force, preventing the demonic power from mending him.
"Zhou Qingmu..." The Hawk King's eyes snapped open, the searing pain twisting his half-human, half-demon face slightly.
The Demon Domain's scheme this time had, by rights, been flawless.
For this plan, they had even been willing to use their own lives as bait, setting up a fatal, inescapable trap.
Three Demon Kings besieging one person—it should have been a crushing, foolproof victory.
And the result? Two dead, one gravely wounded.
They hadn't even had the chance to self-detonate their demon cores before being cut, by that single sword, into a sky full of bloody rain.
Had he, the Green-Scaled Hawk King, not been renowned for his speed to begin with, and had he not in that instant burned his origin essence-blood to flee madly, he too would by now be a withered skeleton upon that snowfield.
Though Zhou Qingmu had also been gravely wounded—perhaps even damaged to the root of her Dao—she was, after all, still alive.
But this was not even what most galled the Green-Scaled Hawk King.
Since the frontal decapitation had failed, the upper echelons of the Demon Domain, though furious, had not entirely given up.
After all, with Zhou Qingmu gravely wounded and returned to the Capital to recuperate, Snowfall Pass had temporarily lost this anchoring pillar—and that remained a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity.
They had agreed to the Eternal Life Sect's request for cooperation: once the timing was ripe, with collusion from within and without, taking Snowfall Pass was not beyond reach.
The Myriad Gold Pavilion had done well; Qian Tong had been obedient too. The great net was about to draw tight, Snowfall Pass was about to rot from within...
The Myriad Gold Pavilion—collapsed.
Not surrounded and wiped out by a large force, nor exposed by the formations of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, but single-handedly taken down by a green, untested brat whose cultivation was no more than the second realm!
That trash Qian Tong—a dignified fourth-realm cultivator, holding the trump card the Eternal Life Sect had given him—had actually been schemed to death by a second-realm boy!
And along with him, the Myriad Gold Pavilion's accumulation of many years, those covertly placed informants, even that all-important intelligence on the smuggling route—all fell into human hands.
That night, when the news reached Hawk's Sorrow Ravine, the Green-Scaled Hawk King had very nearly choked with rage.
At that time, he had been in the critical phase of recuperation, unable to act in person.
So he could only console himself: the Myriad Gold Pavilion was one of Snowfall Pass's intelligence hubs, and once it toppled—a break in intelligence, a shortage of supplies, hearts thrown into panic—for the demon clans about to launch their offensive, this might not be a bad thing.
Muddy waters are best for fishing.
While the humans were scrambling to fill the void the Myriad Gold Pavilion had left, he could make precise use of the teleportation formation in Hawk's Sorrow Ravine to catch them off guard.
Yet that brat who had personally destroyed the Myriad Gold Pavilion turned right around and produced a thing called the "Myriad Wonders Assembly."
At first, the Green-Scaled Hawk King had not taken this thing seriously.
In his view, so-called soul-interlinking and intelligence-sharing was nothing but children playing house. But as time went on, he discovered he had been wrong.
That "Myriad Wonders Assembly" not only did not die in the womb—it spread across the Northern Territory at a tongue-tying speed.
The moment a demon-clan scout poked out its head, it would be spotted by rogue cultivators and uploaded to the Myriad Wonders Assembly; the moment a small beast-tide began to gather, its location would be marked by passing demon-hunting squads. Even the false information he deliberately released to confuse and mislead would be swiftly identified and debunked by that accursed thing.
The Snowfall Pass of today was like something that had grown thousands upon thousands of eyes.
And the one who had produced all this was, once again, that same person.
——Gu Chengming.
When this name was at last laid upon the Green-Scaled Hawk King's desk, new grudges and old hatreds erupted utterly in that single moment.
He remembered this name.
Or rather, he remembered this aura.
That ant who, upon the snowfield, right beneath his very eyes, had used some uncanny escape technique and fist art to wrench himself free from a certain-death situation.
At the time, his eyes had held only Zhou Qingmu; he had paid this ant no mind, treating it as nothing more than an accident.
But who could have imagined that he would not only destroy the Myriad Gold Pavilion and build the Myriad Wonders Assembly, but even...
The Green-Scaled Hawk King slowly lifted his hand, and in his palm appeared a shattered soul-jade.
That was the natal soul-jade of one of his direct descendants—the Iron-Feather Grey Hawk.
Though that little hawk's bloodline was not pure, it was one of the juniors he had focused on cultivating. He had originally hoped it could temper itself in that region and one day take over part of the clan.
Yet not long ago, its soul-lamp had been extinguished—slain by a human cultivator, not even bones left, its very demon core blasted to pieces.
And according to the intelligence gathered afterward, the one who had struck the killing blow was none other than this Gu Chengming!
"Slay my offspring, destroy my foundation, throw my grand plan into chaos..." The Green-Scaled Hawk King drew a deep breath, the killing intent in his eyes boiling.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King knew very well that the "Myriad Wonders Assembly" was the greatest threat at present. But if this thing could be grasped in the hands of the demon clans—even if only by stealing a portion of its authority—it would play a decisive role in the great battle to come.
Only... he lowered his head and looked at the wounds on his back.
Zhou Qingmu's sword had been too vicious. Were it not for outside aid, then, far from taking revenge, he would have trouble even maintaining his human form right now.
Thinking of this, the Green-Scaled Hawk King turned his head and looked toward a jutting rock beside the blood pool.
There sat an antique, simply-styled jade vial, its mouth unsealed. Wisp after wisp of an aura tinged with a faint golden luster spilled ceaselessly from the vial, melding into the blood pool below.
It was precisely this aura that neutralized that domineering sword intent, allowing his wounds to be swiftly suppressed and restored in a short time.
That was demonic energy—true demonic energy, origin demonic energy stemming from a fifth-realm Jiao-demon.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King gazed at that jade vial, a flicker of complex emotion crossing his eyes.
This thing had been sent by a special envoy dispatched by the Fubai Dragon Lord, who held sway over the East Sea.
Within the demon clans, the winged-fowl tribes and the scaled-armor tribes had always been at odds. Though he and the Fubai Dragon Lord had some acquaintance, it extended only to mutual interest and never to such a degree of "sending charcoal in the snow."
There was only one reason the other party was so generous—and it was, once again, because of that Gu Chengming.
When Gu Chengming slew the Jiao at the East Sea back then, the one he killed was precisely the Fubai Dragon Lord's most beloved youngest son.
And the Fubai Dragon Lord, as overlord of one region, was bound by the alliance pact between the Great Qian and the East Sea, as well as the surveillance of those human powers lurking in the shadows. He could not act in person, could not even openly send people into the Northern Territory to hunt his quarry.
So he had chosen to kill with a borrowed knife.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King slowly rose to his feet from the blood pool.
"Shhhrrrk—"
His enormous azure wings spread abruptly behind him, kicking up a gust of bloody wind.
Though his wounds were not yet fully healed, he had recovered to seven or eight parts. Even if Gu Chengming had some tricks, he would not escape his grasp.
He beat his wings and rose, transforming into an azure streak of light, racing along the passage deep in the karst cavern.
Demonic power surged through his body, stirring up gales that ground all the rubble along the way to fine powder. At the passage's end, the spatial fluctuations grew ever more violent.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King slowed his pace and sent his divine sense probing forward to confirm the operating state of the teleportation formation.
Yet the very instant his divine sense touched that stretch of space—
Heaven and earth changed color.
The originally dim passage suddenly blazed bright as day. Countless golden lines emerged from all directions, interweaving in the void into an airtight great net. Those lines were no ordinary formation patterns, but were sketched with some special brushwork, every stroke imbued with a mysterious cadence, as though they were the most exquisite painting between heaven and earth.
A painting-formation!
The Green-Scaled Hawk King's pupils contracted sharply.
He tried to retreat, only to find that those golden lines had already trapped him fast within. The lines drew tight, space congealed, and even the circulation of demonic power within him turned sluggish.
——When had the humans set this ambush?
Alarm bells rang wildly in the Green-Scaled Hawk King's heart. The demonic power throughout his body surged frantically, attempting to break through the bonds of this painting-formation. Yet those seemingly gentle golden lines were astonishingly tough; no matter how he crashed against them, he only made the lines tremble slightly, and could not wrench free in the slightest.
Worse still, as the painting-formation operated, he could clearly feel his own strength being suppressed.
The demonic power that had recovered to eight parts could now only manifest at four parts—and it was still continuously dropping.
——Damn it!
A flash of shocked fury crossed the Green-Scaled Hawk King's eyes.
One who could lay out a painting-formation of this caliber was absolutely no ordinary cultivator. And the other party clearly knew his movements like the back of their hand—otherwise it would have been impossible to set so precise an ambush at this time, in this place.
Just as the Green-Scaled Hawk King's thoughts were racing, two figures—one man, one woman—walked slowly out from beyond the painting-formation.
The man wore a long sword at his waist, his aura steady and restrained, looking no more than a little past twenty. The woman was clad in a plain white robe, holding a judge's brush, her features fresh and lovely, a faint spiritual charm wreathed about her.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King's gaze fell upon that man, and his pupils contracted once more. This face, he remembered.
The ant who had luckily escaped upon the snowfield, the chief culprit behind the Myriad Gold Pavilion's destruction, the founder of the Myriad Wonders Assembly, the sword cultivator who had slain his direct descendant.
——Gu Chengming.
But after sensing carefully, he found that apart from these two, there was no one else, which surprised him considerably.
In an instant, countless emotions churned in the Green-Scaled Hawk King's heart—surprise, fury, killing intent—finally coalescing into a low, sneering laugh.
He had originally been thinking that after breaking Snowfall Pass, he would have to rack his brains to dig this brat out of the city. Who would have thought the other party would deliver himself to the door.
A second-realm cultivator, daring to come ambush him, a fourth-realm Demon Sovereign?
The Green-Scaled Hawk King did not know whether to call the other party commendably brave or utterly foolish.
His gaze swept again to that female cultivator. The one who could lay out a painting-formation of this caliber was surely this woman.
Judging from her aura, she should be near the third realm in cultivation...
At his peak, he naturally would not have spared a third-realm and a second-realm a second glance. But now, with his wounds unhealed and his power suppressed by the painting-formation, he would have to respond with caution.
Still...
A trace of cold intent flickered in the Green-Scaled Hawk King's eyes.
Even suppressed to four parts of his strength, dealing with one second-realm and one third-realm was more than enough.
He even began to calculate how he would torment these two in a moment to ease a little of the hatred in his heart.
Yet in the very next instant, six streaks of sword-light shot skyward from behind Gu Chengming.
For an ordinary sword cultivator to refine even a single natal sword to perfection was already no small feat—how much more so to command six at once. This counted as a rare ability even among human sword cultivators.
But it was no more than that.
The gap in realms was not something quantity could make up for.
Gu Chengming wasted no extra words. The six swords instantly turned into six streaks of flowing light, assailing the Green-Scaled Hawk King from different angles.
The instant the sword formation took shape, the Green-Scaled Hawk King sensed that something was wrong.
This was not a simple six-sword siege, but a complete sword formation.
The six swords echoed one another, working in concert. More uncanny still, each strike of a sword left behind a faint, almost imperceptible thread in the void.
Those threads coiled about him. At first they were inconspicuous, but as the sword formation operated, the threads grew more and more, denser and denser, until they actually began to hamper his movements.
——The Cling sword intent.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King's heart sank. The demonic power throughout his body erupted, attempting to shatter those threads coiled about him. Yet those threads, seemingly fragile, were in truth incomparably tough; no matter how he struggled, he only drew the threads tighter.
At the same time, the six swords' offensive grew ever fiercer.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King was forced to respond with all his might, his enormous azure wings becoming a barrier before him that blocked all six swords.
"Clang clang clang—" The clash of metal rang ceaselessly.
The six swords struck the wings, sparks scattering, yet they could not break through that defense forged from condensed demonic power.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King's heart eased somewhat.
Just as he'd thought—the gap in realms was not something mere tricks could make up for... Though this brat's swordplay was exquisite and his sword formation uncanny, he was, in the end, only second-realm.
His sword could not break through a fourth-realm Demon Sovereign's defense. So long as he dragged it out, until the painting-formation's effect weakened, or until he found an opening to break the formation, the outcome would be decided.
Yet just as the Green-Scaled Hawk King was thinking this, he suddenly discovered a fact that chilled him to the bone.
Those threads coiled about him did not disperse with the passing of time—on the contrary, they piled up more and more.
And as the threads increased, his movements grew ever more sluggish, the circulation of his demonic power ever more stagnant.
More terrifying still, though those six swords could not break through his defense, each strike left a fine mark upon his wings. Each mark looked insignificant on its own, but when they accumulated to a certain degree, they actually began to produce a kind of resonance.
From the very start, Gu Chengming had never intended to defeat him head-on with second-realm cultivation. Rather, he meant through this grinding, water-wearing-stone labor to consume his demonic power bit by bit, to weaken his defenses, and finally to trap him to death here.
And that painting-formation existed precisely to complement this tactic.
The painting-formation suppressed his strength, the sword formation consumed his demonic power, the Cling sword intent restricted his movements.
Three approaches at once, each link locked into the next.
He had to admit this Gu Chengming truly had some ability. Were it any ordinary early-fourth-realm demon cultivator, under these circumstances he might really have been ground to death. But he was no ordinary early-fourth-realm... no matter how many tens of thousands of strokes the other party landed, he still could not break through his defense.
Yet just as he was thinking this, Xu Huayi, who stood to one side maintaining the formation, suddenly produced a sword talisman.
That sword talisman was silver-white throughout, its surface carved with intricate patterns, faintly radiating an utterly sharp sword intent.
——That was sword intent belonging to a fourth-realm sword cultivator.
Luo Jinyao!
A name flashed instantly across the Green-Scaled Hawk King's mind, and his once-relaxed expression abruptly contorted, his eyes splitting wide with fury.
Before he could think further, Xu Huayi had already activated that sword talisman.
"Hummmm—"
A sword-cry resounded through heaven and earth.
The sword talisman burst apart in mid-air, transforming into a brilliant silver-white sword-light. When it first appeared, it was no more than three feet long, but in the blink of an eye it swelled to dozens of zhang, as though it would split all heaven and earth in two.
Wherever the sword-light passed, space cracked inch by inch, and pitch-black fissures even appeared in the void.
This single sword had already surpassed the bounds of the ordinary fourth realm.
In this moment, the Green-Scaled Hawk King truly felt the threat of death.
Flee? But the painting-formation trapped his form. Block? But the threads coiled about him restricted his movements. Counterattack? But that sword-light's speed had reached the very extreme, giving him no time to react at all.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King let out a shrill, piercing howl, the demonic power throughout his body burning madly—he did not even hesitate to once again burn his origin essence-blood.
An azure light-shield condensed into being before him. That was his last-ditch life-saving measure, a protective treasure he had obtained years ago in a secret realm deep within the Demon Domain.
That light-shield was named the Green-Scale Guard, refined from his shed scales combined with some heaven-and-earth treasure, using lifespan as the catalyst. Unless pushed to the utmost extremity, he would never bring it out.
Now he could no longer care about any of that. The silver-white sword-light slashed down upon the azure light-shield.
"BOOM—"
An earth-shaking, world-shattering roar echoed through the gorge.
The whole of Hawk's Sorrow Ravine quaked violently under this single blow. Countless rocks tumbled from the cliffs, smoke and dust billowing up to blot out the sky and shroud the day.
Under the impact of the sword-light, the azure light-shield cracked inch by inch, finally dissolving into points of light filling the sky.
The smoke and dust had not yet settled; the cold wind cut like a blade.
That world-splitting silver-white sword-light at last exhausted its final shred of might, scattering into points of stellar dust that dispersed into the bitter cold wind of Hawk's Sorrow Ravine.
Xu Huayi's form swayed violently, that once fresh and lovely face now frighteningly pale.
Though the sword talisman Luo Jinyao had left behind possessed peerless might, for her in this moment, both the guidance of divine sense and the drawing of true essence it demanded were burdens hard to bear.
The judge's brush in her hand all but slipped from her grasp, her whole person tottering on the verge of collapse—the sign of true essence drained to the utter limit.
"It's not dead..." Xu Huayi looked at the cluster of demonic energy ahead that had not fully dispersed, a flicker of gravity crossing her eyes.
The gun-smoke cleared, revealing the Green-Scaled Hawk King's wretchedly ruined body.
That once iridescent Green-Scale Guard had been utterly shattered. One of the twin wings he so prized was broken off, half his body a mangle of bloody flesh, the stark white bone even visible.
But he was still alive, glaring fixedly at the two with eyes full of venom and madness.
"Good... very good..."
The Green-Scaled Hawk King's voice was hoarse as a cracked gong.
"To drive This King to this state—you two may well take pride in it!!"
Without the slightest hesitation, heedless even of the mournful cries from that ruined body, a mouthful of essence-blood containing his origin life-force gushed forth, becoming an eerie blood-mist that enveloped him. His once-decaying aura actually swelled madly in that instant—it was a life-staking strike that burned lifespan and severed his path of the Dao.
He knew very well that the female cultivator was already spent. As for the remaining second-realm boy, no matter how exquisite his swordsmanship, he could never block this mutually-destructive grasp.
Yet in the face of this certain-kill strike, Gu Chengming did not retreat, did not dodge—not even the expression on his face changed in the slightest.
He merely stepped forward, placing himself before the tottering Xu Huayi.
"Just as I thought." Gu Chengming sighed inwardly.
The life-force of a fourth-realm Demon Sovereign was so tenacious—he had never expected that single sword talisman to settle everything entirely.
His true killing move had always been saved for the very last.
Gu Chengming slowly closed his eyes. In the instant before that gale fierce enough to shred metal and stone reached the space between his brows, in the depths of his sea of consciousness, that pink Red Dust energy, long since coiled and ready, once again burst forth like a collapsing dam.
If, when slaying the Jiao at the East Sea, what he borrowed was the "hatred" of that sword cultivator from a hundred years ago—
Then today...
Gu Chengming's eyes snapped open, and within his twin pupils there seemed to be reflected the heaped white bones rising and sinking in the blood pool at the bottom of Hawk's Sorrow Ravine.
Red Dust Art——Reverse the Effect to the Cause.
In this instant, the wind of Hawk's Sorrow Ravine stopped.
That swiftly-charging Green-Scaled Hawk King suddenly felt an unprecedented palpitation.
In his field of vision, behind that young man standing before the female cultivator, the space suddenly grew somewhat crowded.
Those were shadows—countless illusory, yet incomparably real, shadows.
At first there was one, then ten, then a hundred...
Those shadows—some wore ragged coarse cloth, some were still only young children, some looked like old farmers just returned from labor in the fields, and some were mothers who had died to protect their children...
Those were the materials thrown into the blood pool, drained of every last drop of blood by the formation, their very bones at last filled into the abyss.
Those were what this Hawk King had over these ten years called "two-legged sheep"—the "ants" in his eyes, for whom he wouldn't have blinked even if ten thousand died.
But today, these ants stood up.
These phantoms layered upon phantoms—some bore faces of grief and sorrow, some expressions of fury, some gazes of numbness.
But in the instant this single sword was swung, all the shadows made the very same motion.
They reached out their hands, as though wishing to push this sword forward, and as though holding this sword aloft.
Dense and teeming, layer upon layer, like an insurmountable mountain, they bore down upon the edge of Gu Chengming's blade.
"Since this body has entered the red dust..."
The [Evil-Repeller] in Gu Chengming's hand slowly lifted, and as he moved, the countless phantoms behind him seemed to make the same motion.
"Then today, on behalf of all living beings, I shall collect this debt from you!"
The cause and effect had arrived.
One sword, cut forth.
This sword was as plain as a hoe swung by a farmer, as a cleaver brought down by a butcher, as a stick of firewood snatched up by a mother to shield her child.
——The red dust energy of the mortal world: it most soothes the hearts of common folk, and most slays the gall of demons!
The Green-Scaled Hawk King paled with terror. Before that single sword, the power he had traded his essence-blood to burn melted away swiftly.
The blade swept across the void, dragging a trail of dull grey behind it.
"Squelch—"
That unstoppable blood-colored figure came to an abrupt halt three feet from Gu Chengming.
The blood-mist filling the sky dispersed.
The Green-Scaled Hawk King stood rigid in place, his clouded eyeballs bulging fixedly outward.
In the next moment.
A line of blood slowly emerged from between his brows, running downward, piercing through his entire body.
This fourth-realm Demon Sovereign, who had held sway outside Snowfall Pass for several decades, whose ferocious might had been renowned—his body toppled thunderously to either side.
——Blood scattered across the vast sky.
Xu Huayi seemed not yet to have come back to herself, staring blankly at this scene.
It was like the storyteller in a teahouse who, having finished a soul-stirring tale of demon-subjugation, suddenly raps the gavel down—and the entire hall of guests falls silent, feeling only a surge of righteous spirit roiling in their breasts, long unable to settle.
And that final closing line—perhaps it needed only a few brief words to be passed down for a hundred years amid the wind and snow of the Northern Territory:
A cold blade rises in the Northern Territory, slaying demons for the sake of all living beings.
PS: Also, just to mention: the stamina bar and the true-essence bar are calculated separately, so even if this single sword hadn't slain him, he could still have unleashed a Heavenly Emperor Fist.
Gu Chengming is actually quite cautious, because although the Heavenly Emperor Fist can slay demons and stack layers, his combat state would be affected, so basically he only uses this move when he's certain of a guaranteed kill.
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