novelraw Chapter 322 - 295: Struggle
Chapter 322 - 295: Struggle
Fa Hui stood up and looked down at Li Xuanling, his mouth splitting into a grin to reveal sharp and clean white teeth, intestines and blood hanging from his body dripping down slowly. He sneered,
"Beast, I’ve chased you all this way, gradually my memories of my past life have awakened. I learned that you would come to this petty Taoist temple, so I’ve been waiting for you here early on..."
"Beast..."
Driven to the Northern region by Zifu, Li Xuanling was already holding back frustration. Now startled and shouted at by this monk, his feelings of unwillingness and regret surged within him, transforming into a fiery rage erupting forth, burning fiercely in his chest as he shouted viciously,
"Your mother’s calling me a beast and sinner over and over! Look at the bones under your feet, wipe off the flesh on your body, open your damn eyes and see, who is the real beast!"
"Hahahaha!"
Extremely angry, Fa Hui burst into laughter and intricate golden patterns emerged on his body. Clapping his hands together, the flesh and blood on the ground melted away like red wax, turning into light golden mist and spreading throughout the courtyard.
"You were the black snake that my Wrathful Countenance’s left hand once captured. If you’re not the beast, who is? I never imagined that after you escaped to the North for decades, wielding power as you pleased... Now that I’m about to return to my position as Maha, you too shall achieve your purpose through me."
Before he had even finished speaking, his figure shot out like a cannonball, throwing a punch toward Li Xuanling’s face. Li Xuanling pressed his left hand on the sword; the Moon Que Sword Arc that had been gathering strength for a while now was abruptly drawn, bringing a pure white sword light into the hall and brightening it.
"Clang!"
Fa Hui, empty-handed, with palms full of golden light, forcibly caught the accumulated sword light, clenching his five fingers together and crushing it into powder. Shining golden light flickered in his unhuman-like eyes as he let Li Xuanling put some distance between them, laughing,
"As for these Taoists in the temple... the fact that I can kill them proves that these people’s sins are enormous."
"You!"
Li Xuanling was momentarily shaken by his words but sneered dismissively, treating them as though they were nothing, but Fa Hui raised an eyebrow in anger and challenged,
"Don’t believe it?"
He slowly lifted his robust arm, and the golden mist on the ground followed his motion, rising like Serpent Jiaos and gathering into a beam of golden light in his palm, revealing various images within:
Foundation Establishment wolf demons arrived riding the wind, shrouded in black mist and filled with demonic Qi... After the wolf demon ate the Taoist Temple Master, it forced the old Taoists to collect babies for its consumption... All these scenes—babies crying, Taoists weeping—painted out before them.
Li Xuanling knew that these Taoists weren’t clean, but he understood the situation and wasn’t easily frightened. He scoffed,
"Offering infants is done as a last resort; if not done, the wolf demon would immediately devour all the villagers below the mountain, weighing the pros and cons, which matters more? How can a definitive judgment be made!"
"Definitive judgment?"
The top of the temple had a hole punched through it, and fine droplets of rain fell down. Dim sunlight filtered through gaps in the heavy rain clouds, casting light upon half of Fa Hui’s face, making it appear pale. Fa Hui’s eyes shone with golden light, his voice solemn,
"Evil is evil, and if one does evil, they should be executed. Why fuss over hardships? Who among this world’s people doesn’t have hardships? Hardship is no excuse for evil; killing these creatures is entirely justified!"
"Once I have killed all those who do evil, the world will naturally become clear and pure."
Leaping forward, his palms shimmering with golden light, Li Xuanling found himself at a loss for words. The golden light within the temple grew denser, and his mind felt fuzzy and weighed down with anger, throwing him into extreme agitation. He crossed swords with Fa Hui for several exchanges, his palms shaking in pain, trapped in a difficult position to either advance or retreat.
"Yah!"
Fa Hui’s punches were massive and powerful, each one more ferocious than the last. How could he resemble a monk without any spells? A sense of despair grew in Li Xuanling’s heart, and he thought secretly,
"Perhaps it is my destiny to die by this man’s hand for him to achieve his Maha Reincarnation. My death won’t matter greatly, the Li Family must still rely on the strength of our ancestors to stand firm..."
At that moment, the Mysterious Pearl Talisman Seed within Li Xuanling’s Shengyang Mansion suddenly stirred, producing streams of cool qi that swirled within his mind.
He felt as if he had consumed a large chunk of ice in the dog days of summer, his spirit clear and eyes bright, and the defensive stance that had been pushed back step by step also stabilized. Li Xuanling was greatly shaken, and he heard a voice filled with warmth and calm beside his ear.
"Stay your mind and persevere for the time it takes an incense stick to burn."
Li Xuanling instantly realized that all the recent strange phenomena were the work of Fa Hui’s spells, so hard to guard against and truly too bizarre, it must have been someone who stepped in to disperse Fa Hui’s spellwork. Joy yet doubt swiftly filled his heart as he silently mused,
"Who could it be... Xiao Chuting?! But it doesn’t seem quite like him..."
————
Below the gloomy and oppressive mists, the mountains lay desolate, peppered with moon-white buildings. On the highest platform, fallen leaves were scattered about, landing on desks as smooth as white jade.
"Fate..."
Lu Jiangxian leaned back against a desk of white jade, holding a slender, pure white thread that extended into the boundless void, swaying uncertainly. His other hand grasped a silver glow; it bobbed up and down as if alive, quite mystical in appearance.
"It turns out that when I bestowed the Deep Sea Long Whale Script, that Maha locked onto Li Tongya from thousands of miles away and began to strategize... The Furious Maha has cultivated through nine lives, collecting various fates, and this life, he intends to kill Li Tongya to prove his Way..."
"The various Zifu in the south, even those with Golden Core, calculated against each other, employing Divine Skills in an effort to keep Li Tongya alive, using him as a lure to kill this Maha..."
Lu Jiangxian slowly furrowed his brow, somewhat puzzled:
"What exactly is the connection between Talisman Qi and fate? Everyone is affected differently by the Scripts—is it because the Talisman Qi manifests their fate, or does it bestow a certain fate upon them?"
At this thought, Lu Jiangxian suddenly experienced a moment of insight.
"Li Tongya is not a sacrifice but a decoy; if managed correctly, his death is not certain... As long as he can hold out until the Furious Maha fully awakens within Fa Hui, with the intervention of the Zifu, he may yet survive..."
Lu Jiangxian’s strength had not yet recovered to the point where he could match the Zifu Maha or even the Golden Core Dharma Appearances in their moves, but he was unwilling to sit idly within the mirror, waiting for Li Tongya to be used as a pawn by others. He remained cautious, but he wasn’t the naive, helpless novice he once was.
"Though I cannot intervene directly, I won’t allow myself to be manipulated by others..."
He thought strategically:
"Even Minghui and Jin Lian Maha stood no chance against the true body of the Dharma Mirror, which shows how exalted its rank is—it must be of the Immortal class. As long as this matter does not involve an Immortal, I should be able to act without being noticed."
Lu Jiangxian activated the Power of Deduction that he had acquired from Liu Changdie; the silver light suddenly contracted to one-third its size, and after a brief wait, it formed a character:
"Auspicious."
"Good."
It was already a group of Zifu Maha plotting, but Lu Jiangxian felt more at ease after his calculation. He lightly flicked the thread in his hand, which began to sparkle with white light, and he drew a line for himself in secret:
"I shall intervene only through the Mysterious Pearl Talisman Seed as a medium. That way, even if those Zifu suddenly go mad and capture Li Xuanling or Li Tongya, they won’t detect anything, even if they crack their heads open!"
Since the Mysterious Pearl Talisman Seed was one of the foundational elements of the Dharma Mirror, even an Immortal face-to-face might not notice. If not so, Li Chijin and Li Tongya, who used to loiter in front of the Zifu daily, would have been apprehended long ago.
After considering each aspect thoroughly, Lu Jiangxian was confident there was no likelihood of failure, and only then did a slight smile curl at the corner of his mouth as he whispered:
"I’ll play along with these people for now, consider it accumulating experience! Having consumed your family’s incense and sheddings year after year, it’s time I put in some effort too!"