Dao Companion Crippled, Coveters Move

Chapter 60: The Fate of a Naughty Sword Spirit: Beaten by Her Master Until She Wails

"Fox Demon, you have brought chaos to the Liang Royal Capital, wiped out the Royal Family, and severed the Liang Kingdom's dragon vein. How will you answer for your crimes?"

The White-clothed Sword Immortal, poised in the heavens, spoke from on high. Such an arrogant human naturally drew a hateful roar from the six-tailed white fox.

With a single breath, she exhaled a surging cold current powerful enough to freeze the summer, causing a blizzard of goose-feather snow to fall from thin air amidst the scorching, drought-stricken heat.

Faced with this surging cold current, the Sword Immortal didn't even deign to use Magic to defend himself. A single slash of his sword was enough to cleave it apart!

In that instant, the man and the Fox Demon began their great battle.

Starting from the outskirts of the Royal Capital, they shattered more than ten great mountains in their path, the tremors causing the hearts of all the people in the Liang Kingdom to tremble with fear.

Wherever they passed, scorching heat and bitter cold coexisted—a world of ice and fire.

Twelve hours passed. Before the sun could set at dusk, the Sword Immortal had severed the white fox's fifth tail.

One tail represented one life; the Sword Immortal had killed the white fox five times over.

He was too powerful. The sword in his hand seemed capable of cutting down any enemy before him. His relentless and peerless Sword Qi forced the white fox into constant retreat; she was simply no match for him.

The occasional bursts of Supreme Yang Fire Qi he released perfectly countered the ultimate ice arts she had so painstakingly mastered, leaving the white fox—who had not long ago frozen the Liang Kingdom for ten thousand li—utterly devastated.

It was as if every technique this Sword Immortal used had been cultivated for the sole purpose of perfectly suppressing her.

Just one final strike to sever her last tail, and she would become another soul reaped by the Sword Immortal's blade.

It was just like the tales told by storytellers in the teahouses: a Great Demon, who had committed every imaginable evil, descended from the mountains to plague the mortal realm, only to be utterly destroyed in the name of worldly justice by Immortals of the Righteous Dao who pitied the common people.

The white fox lowered her gaze, a flash of remembrance in her eyes.

When she was young, she had also secretly snuck into a teahouse in the Royal Capital. Back then, the storyteller stood on his stage, reciting the same old, tired story that had been told countless times.

She remembered feeling indignant back then, thinking it was all just human prejudice born from their fear of the powerful Demon Race. She had thought at the time, 'My mother and I are good Demons. We would never do something so foolish as to bring chaos to the world, only to end up being slain by those arrogant Immortals.'

To prove her point, she had even played the ghost to frighten that storyteller. What mortal had ever witnessed a fox speaking human words? That very night, he had scrambled out of the Royal Capital in a panic. The sight of his pathetic state had made her laugh for three days straight...

'Now that I think about it, the arrow I shot in my youth has finally struck me between the eyes.'

'Perhaps, in a few dozen or a hundred years, the storyteller's great-grandchildren, having inherited his skills, will have a new, yet equally tired tale to add to their repertoire: "The Sword Immortal Slays the White Fox, Bringing Justice to the Liang Kingdom."'

'Tch, to think I'm personally delivering new material to that storyteller's great-grandchildren. I guess this can be my apology for that childhood prank.'

At this thought, a look of acceptance appeared in Bai Jingjing's eyes. She raised her head and shot the White-clothed Sword Immortal a defiant glance.

It was as if she were telling him to hurry up and deliver the final blow so he could scurry back to his Sect and claim his reward.

As death approached, Bai Jingjing's gaze upon the White-clothed Sword Immortal before her was perfectly calm.

For some reason, she felt that dying at the hands of a Sword Cultivator who seemed like an immortal banished to the mortal realm might not be such a bad thing after all.

'Such a handsome Cultivator... he might be a Great Power reincarnated for his second life. If I die at the hands of a figure like that, maybe I'll have something to brag about when I get to the Underworld.'

...

"Something to brag about? Bai Jingjing, are you talking in your sleep?"

Pei Yuhang's confused call made Bai Jingjing open her eyes in a daze.

Seeing the familiar ceiling of Pei Yuhang's room, Bai Jingjing realized that forty years had passed since that day.

'Time really flies... Only when you actively try to remember do you realize you've already moved on from the past and come so far.'

Sitting to the side, Pei Yuhang had no idea his Sword Spirit had fallen into philosophical contemplation. He was just extremely curious at the moment.

'So, Sword Spirits can dream, huh.'

'But a Sword Spirit doesn't have a physical body, only a Spirit Body. Does that mean... you really don't need a brain to dream?'

Out of curiosity, Pei Yuhang poked Bai Jingjing's cheek.

'He completely lacks the chilling gaze filled with sharp Sword Intent from my dream, as well as that aloofness that kept everyone at arm's length.'

'This version of Pei Yuhang... is actually quite likable. I wonder what got into him back then, making him obsessed with slaying demons and defending the Dao. He was a total killing machine.'

'Hmm, it seems his personality only started to soften after he became Dao Companions with that woman, Ye Liyuan... So was his awful, withdrawn personality in the past because he didn't have a Dao Companion and had too much pent-up "fire"?'

'Tch, just thinking about you killing me six times in my dream is annoying!'

'But... seeing as you only wanted to save my Divine Soul back then and prevent it from being destroyed along with my physical body, I suppose I can forgive you...'

Bai Jingjing frowned, slapped Pei Yuhang's finger away, and huffed in the bossy tone of a bratty imp:

"Pei Yuhang, has it been so long since your Dao Companion was around that you've gotten desperate enough to make a move on your own Sword Spirit?"

Hearing this, a look of disgust appeared on Pei Yuhang's face.

"First of all, I, Pei Yuhang, am completely faithful to my Dao Companion, not shameless like you claim, you bratty imp!

"Second... even in the absolute worst-case scenario, if I were really that shameless, I'd rather be burned to death by Evil Yang Fire Qi than give a little brat like you a second glance."

Pei Yuhang's voice was filled with contempt, which deeply stung Bai Jingjing's heart.

The perpetually cold and deadpan Sword Spirit's fair-skinned face instantly flushed red with anger.

She pounced, flailing her arms and legs, intending to get revenge for the past, the dream, and the present all at once!

But Bai Jingjing was no match for Pei Yuhang even when she had a physical body, let alone now as a mere Spirit Body who acknowledged him as her master.

The result was, naturally, as expected.

The bratty imp's fate was to be thoroughly disciplined by her master, who hit her until she was crying and begging for mercy.

She couldn't even care about her pride anymore, reluctantly crying out, "Master, spare me!" before she was finally given a chance to catch her breath.

Bai Jingjing shot Pei Yuhang a glare, and after vowing that one day the slave would rise up and sing, she clutched her little bottom and dived back into the Silent Sword as if fleeing for her life.