novelraw Chapter 94 : Sixteen Bright Moon Flower Needles
Chapter 94 : Sixteen Bright Moon Flower Needles
Chapter 94: Sixteen Bright Moon Flower Needles
Within the Nether Palace, surrounded by countless colossal beings.
In the midst of silence.
Xiao Qingfeng stood upon the throne, silently awaiting the arrival of the third day.
Suddenly—
He opened his eyes.
The aura belonging to “Yu” was moving.
Not only that—the three people within that courtyard were all in motion. The man was swiftly heading outside the city, while the two women were going toward the Western City.
“Seeking death?”
Xiao Qingfeng narrowed his eyes slightly.
His gaze fixed upon the man. He could not understand why Yu had come out; if he had stayed in the courtyard, he could still have lived two more days. But now that he came out, Xiao Qingfeng could kill him directly.
Forget it—no need to think too much.
Xiao Qingfeng immediately stood. The wind of the Nether Kingdom roared and trembled behind him, bringing forth an aura of annihilation.
He picked up the Sun-Moon Sundial and, in the next instant, left the palace, heading toward the place where he sensed Yu’s aura.
Now that he controlled most of the Nether Kingdom, he could descend anywhere at will.
“Hm?”
Things did not go as smoothly as he had expected.
The numbers still didn’t match up.
The inexplicably vanishing spirits of the Nether Kingdom now appeared one after another before him, blocking his way.
One, ten, a hundred—
They roared, and finally intertwined, merging into a vast, twisted mass of pitch-black shadow that stood in his path.
Xiao Qingfeng stopped walking, his gaze indifferent as he looked at the struggling shadow—as though looking at a swarm of gathered ants.
“Perfect,” he said coldly. “Saves me the effort of finding you.”
He didn’t even make an extra move—just lightly waved the Sun-Moon Sundial in his hand.
Boom!
The explosion of destruction did not erupt outward but burst from within the massive black shadow itself.
Fragments of the black spirits were torn apart by an invisible force, scattering in all directions amid countless shrill, piercing wails.
The spirits struggled, scattering apart, baring their man-eating maws as they charged toward Xiao Qingfeng one after another.
His gaze swept over those twisted faces in the shadow. He did recognize some of them—such as the one with horns on its head. He remembered it clearly: in the cold mists of the Nether Kingdom, that spirit had knelt beside him many times, trembling yet devoutly praying with him, begging for the Nether Lord’s return.
But now, he was the Nether Lord. Those spirits were no longer his companions.
The Sun-Moon Sundial turned slightly in his hand, letting out a continuous sound like air leaking from bursting bubbles.
One after another, the spirits—including the horned one—vanished under the power of Jade Balance, leaving not even the faintest trace.
Xiao Qingfeng was in no hurry. In his eyes, the other side was no different from ants—just fourth- or fifth-realm beings. Why were they so weak?
He finally sensed that something was wrong.
Yu was someone who had come to the Nether Kingdom earlier than him—who had transformed into a spirit of the Nether and gained the memory of such spirits.
When Yu left the Nether Kingdom back then, he was already in the Sixth Realm, Dawning Sun.
Otherwise, he could not have left the Path of Death alive. Yet now, after so many years, Yu had returned—and was only Fifth Realm?
Judging by the opening of the Nether Kingdom, Yu’s first entry had been over seventeen hundred years ago. Only someone at the Sixth Realm, Dawning Sun, could live that long.
So why was the person ahead of him only at such a weak realm?
Xiao Qingfeng instantly realized that he might have been tricked. His authority flared again; black spirits surged forth, and the already gloomy sky of the Nether Kingdom grew even heavier.
The other two people were running in another direction.
No—
Something was even more wrong.
Those two’s realms were nearly the same as well.
What on earth was happening?!
Xiao Qingfeng frowned deeply.
But perhaps it wasn’t so complicated after all. No matter why this Yu had fallen to his current level, or who among the three was truly Yu—
He would just kill them all.
The dark spirits under his command swarmed out in full force.
Colossal creatures from the Primordial Era emerged from the Nether Palace, their sky-covering wings blotting out the heavens.
These spirits, all born of him, headed straight toward the two fleeing women.
Xiao Qingfeng turned back toward the distant Yu.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward—each stride spanning worlds—and in an instant, he was chasing Yu out of the Nether Kingdom.
Outside the great city, the ancient stone bridge still stood—desolate and withered— untouched by the waters of the Nether River, as if existing outside of past and present.
Yu, cloaked in black, was rushing toward that bridge.
Was there something upon it?
Xiao Qingfeng thought the same as Lu Changyuan once had—he didn’t believe the Nether Lord had abandoned his kingdom, only that the Lord had been trapped and unable to return.
If that was so, then the Nether Lord must have left a portion of his authority behind within the kingdom.
The spirits didn’t know where—but could Yu?
That bridge?
Because the bridge lay outside the Western City—Mei Zhao Zhao had crossed it to enter the city back then—and since it wasn’t within the Nether Kingdom, spirits wouldn’t leave its borders.
Thus, as a spirit-born being, Xiao Qingfeng had little impression of that bridge.
He couldn’t help but recall an old rumor he had once heard in his cultivation days.
The bridge was a link between the living and the dead.
To cross it could summon back the departed.
Yu was trying to summon back the Nether Lord?
A tremor surged through Xiao Qingfeng’s heart—that was indeed the most likely explanation.
He suddenly raised his head. It seemed that a star shone beyond the Nether Kingdom, piercing the void and manifesting within the sky of the Nether itself.
The Dao of the Nether Lord had never truly departed—it had always remained within the Nether Kingdom. Xiao Qingfeng knew this well. Yet that Dao had long been without a master—so why was it suddenly trembling now?
“Ridiculous! Do you take me for decoration!?”
The stone bridge!!!
Xiao Qingfeng immediately regained focus and twisted the Sun-Moon Sundial with all his strength. His laws erupted violently.
The overwhelming power of half-step Jade Radiance arrived in an instant.
That was the power at the end of the Dao of this world’s cultivation—the force that illuminated Dao Stars in the heavens. Enormous and devastating, it tore through the prison of the Nether Kingdom, carrying death itself as it struck in a straight, unyielding line.
Bang.
The sound was soft—yet it echoed through the entire Nether River.
Xiao Qingfeng cultivated the Transformative Life Dao—a Dao neither supreme in offense nor illusion like Ancestor Red Luan’s Illusory Moon Dao, but one with terrifying rebirth methods. Still, he was a half-step Jade Radiance; his power was far beyond the Fifth Realm’s defense.
Yu’s black robe fluttered wildly in the storm. His body froze midair—not because he didn’t wish to move, but because every inch of him was bound solid.
He could only watch—as the blood-red arc of Jade Radiance surged toward him.
Pain consumed him. He fell like a shot bird.
The stone bridge was right before himnbut he couldn’t reach it in time.
That short distance was like a chasm between worlds.
Yu finally fell, crashing onto the cold, broken earth of the Nether, his breath flickering like a dying flame.
The Buddha said: become a stone bridge, endure five hundred years of wind, five hundred of sun, five hundred of rain—only then may the scholar see the tofu-selling girl again.
But the scholar drowned, clutching that bridge.
The Nether Lord said: after five hundred years of wind, sun, and rain—I shall return.
The scholar died upon the bridge; death was the Dao of the Nether Lord. The bridge was the link between life and death.
Xiao Qingfeng was certain now—his guess had been correct. Yu sought to summon the Nether Lord upon that bridge, which was why the Nether Lord’s Dao had begun to glimmer in the heavens, and why those mismatched spirits had risen—to stop him.
“You’ve underestimated me far too much.”
Xiao Qingfeng slowly stood in midair. In his hand appeared a bone blade.
He would sever Yu’s head kill the crown prince and fully usurp the Nether Kingdom, completing the final step.
“Hm?”
Xiao Qingfeng suddenly sneered. He extended a hand, lifting Yu’s body into the air—but instead of decapitating him, he turned the Sun-Moon Sundial once more.
The ancient stone bridge exploded.
“No matter what means you have, the Nether Lord will never return.”
Since the bridge was the link to the Nether Lord, he would simply destroy it. Breaking the bridge meant breaking the bond—whatever ritual Yu had planned there would now be useless.
Now then—
Xiao Qingfeng felt long-lost excitement. Centuries of scheming were about to bear fruit.
He could, of course, crush Yu instantly—but that would not be perfect.
To seize a kingdom, one must publicly behead the crown prince—that alone could establish a new monarch’s authority. He raised the bone blade. Yu’s body hung before him, bound.
He smiled a terrifying, deranged smile.
“Four hundred years of planning finally, it is done! I shall ascend the Dao!!”
The Nether Lord’s star in the heavens dimmed, ceasing its glow. In its place appeared a red phantom star.
Transformative Life Dao!
“The old king shall be swept into the dust of history!”
As Xiao Qingfeng swung the bone blade, his heart suddenly trembled. He shouted in shock and swiftly sidestepped.
A silver needle shot from Yu’s chest, grazing his ear before coalescing into a phantom figure.
Yu’s black robe fluttered away in the wind, revealing long silver hair gleaming in the darkness—a ray of light amid shadow.
Blood spilled from Su Youwan’s lips. Despite her severe injuries, she showed not the slightest panic. “Master, your disciple is incompetent and must rely upon you now.”
Su Youwan, the chief disciple of Cihang Palace.
Her master was not the Palace Mistress herself, but another terrifying great being who had long dwelled within Cihang Palace.
As that one’s only direct disciple, Su Youwan had inherited not only her master’s teachings—but also one of her master’s silver needles, which she kept close at all times.
The needle formed a phantom. In the phantom’s hand appeared countless more needles, which slowly merged into a long, slender spear.
The phantom’s voice was even colder than Su Youwan’s own. Looking upon Xiao Qingfeng, she spoke disdainfully: “How audacious.”
The needle struck.
The heavens of the Nether seemed illuminated. Though this realm had neither sun nor moon, now a chillingly bright moon appeared above.
The sky’s black-and-white sun—both day and night of the Nether—was joined by this new brilliance, as if sun and moon coexisted.
Though only a phantom’s manifestation, its light seemed capable of eclipsing even the Nether’s own sun.
No one knew how strong the phantom’s master truly was—but from this alone, one could glimpse a fraction.
Su Youwan whispered softly: “Sixteen Bright Moon Flower Needles—Pierce the Faded Stars, Rend the Clouded River.”
Xiao Qingfeng’s shrill, incredulous voice tore through the heavens: “The Sixteen Bright Moon Flower Needles of the Sun-Moon Palace—what are you!?”
Before his words could fall—
The needle arrived.
Beneath the moonlight’s cold radiance, Xiao Qingfeng’s body was utterly destroyed.
Yet Su Youwan’s expression did not ease. She continued to stare tightly at the space where Xiao Qingfeng had vanished.
Crackle—
Something ignited.
The shattered shadows slowly gathered.
Xiao Qingfeng reformed from the void, his figure writhing and knitting together once more.
He glared at Su Youwan with venom.
“You won’t have a second needle.”
Su Youwan’s silver hair was matted with blood, her entire figure seeming on the verge of breaking apart. “Perhaps not,” she murmured, “but even one is enough.”
Enough?
Enough for what?
Only then did Xiao Qingfeng notice—Yu’s presence had vanished.
The Life-Exchange Technique!
A law of the Destined Heavenly Dao!
Su Youwan smiled faintly—the widest smile she could manage. “The scholar drowned upon the bridge—because the bridge linked life and death. But the Nether Lord was never truly dead.”
A beam of light shot up into the sky in the distance.
Clutching his chest, Xiao Qingfeng turned sharply—Yu’s aura was now between the Eastern and Western Cities?
Damn it.
He had been deceived!
Having taken a strike from the Sixteen Bright Moon Flower Needles, though not dead, he was still wounded—and now dared not take further risks.
Since the girl before him was not Yu, there was no need to gamble on whether she had a second needle.
With a cold snort, Xiao Qingfeng soared skyward.
Su Youwan fell from midair with a soft groan, leaning against the broken remains of the shattered stone bridge. She whispered faintly:
“Youwan… has done all she could.”