novelraw Chapter 17 : Chapter 17
Chapter 17 : Chapter 17
Chapter 17
“Too late.” Zhan Herong’s face turned deathly pale, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. The formation disk in his hand cracked with sharp sounds.
“It is the Huntian Cup.”
The Huntian Cup was a Treasured Artifact said to contain heaven and earth within a single vessel, capable of isolating heaven and earth and refining all things within it.
This artifact belonged to the Huntian Old Demon.
The Huntian Old Demon was one of the Seventeen Great Demons.
His cultivation had already reached the Eighth Layer of the Tianxuan Realm.
He had come to Suizhou for the Blood-Rust Blade as well.
The world suddenly darkened.
All around them became dim and murky gray as the orthodox cultivators were trapped inside the Huntian Cup.
And the one who had laid this trap was not only the Huntian Old Demon.
“What is that?!” someone shouted in alarm.
On the barren land where not a blade of grass grew, shoots suddenly burst from the soil.
These plants grew wildly the moment they touched the air, and in the blink of an eye they shot higher than a person, lashing toward the cultivators.
A vine whipped forward, only to be cut in half by Xie Jingfei’s sword.
Yet from the severed end of the vine burst a cloud of willow-catkin-like seeds that drifted toward anyone nearby.
A disciple of Wujiguan was caught off guard and one of the seeds landed on him.
It immediately rooted itself into his skin and flesh.
Within mere moments, tender shoots sprouted.
The disciple groaned in pain and cried out in terror, “It is draining my spiritual power!”
Yin Songquan rushed forward and grasped his arm.
He probed with his spiritual power, and after a short moment the seed withered and fell away. Yet his expression did not relax.
“Do not let this thing touch you! It is extremely troublesome!”
The thing was extraordinarily strange.
Once it attached to someone, the spiritual power inside their body was nearly useless against it.
If Medicine King Valley had not possessed deep knowledge of the life force of wood spirits, they might not have been able to deal with it even after a long time.
However, the cultivators did not know its properties.
When those plants attacked them, they naturally retaliated. In that short moment alone, countless seeds had already burst into the air.
Screams rang out everywhere.
Some quick-witted cultivators hastily activated defensive spell arts or Treasured Artifacts.
The seeds attached themselves to the outside of those defenses, layer upon layer, until within moments they formed a large white fluff ball.
The floating white mass looked soft and almost cute, but once enough gathered together it slowed the flow of spiritual power.
Soon some cultivators could no longer sustain their defenses.
Their spell arts and artifacts were forced back into their bodies, and in an instant the seeds covered them completely.
Countless flower buds formed across their bodies, blooming into densely packed bright red flowers.
The scene was bizarre and tragic.
Some cultivators used water and fire spell arts, yet the substance behaved like oil.
It floated when it met water and refused to burn even when touched by fire.
It could not be cut or burned, and many Demonic Cultivators hidden inside the Huntian Cup took advantage of the terrain to launch sudden assassinations.
In a short time, many cultivators had already lost their lives.
Yu Meng held her willow-wood zither.
With a flick of her slender fingers, music rang out, shaking away the surrounding seeds.
Facing the attacking plants, she sang:
“Fade, fade, fade. Springtime and autumn days are but illusions. Born today, withered tomorrow.”
The strange plants that were attacking suddenly seemed to enter the depths of winter.
They shriveled and decayed instantly, without releasing any seeds.
Shuiyue Ward cultivated the Dao of illusion and reality, contemplating the impermanence of all things.
Their arts could cause things to bloom and decay in an instant.
However, this was already a very advanced spell art within Shuiyue Ward.
Few Shuiyue Ward cultivators present could perform it, and even Yu Meng struggled to sustain it.
The sound of her zither spread outward and enveloped nearby cultivators with insufficient cultivation.
It formed layers of rippling illusions around them.
When the drifting seeds landed, they seemed to fall into empty space, passing through without harming anyone or attaching themselves.
The others were finally able to free their hands to deal with the Demonic Cultivators who appeared and vanished in the shadows.
At this moment, Shuiyue Ward’s illusion-body technique was far more effective than other defensive methods.
But Yu Meng could not sustain it for long.
She turned to Xie Jingfei.
“Senior Brother Xie!”
Xie Jingfei gave a slight nod. “I will try.”
His sword intent expanded outward.
Its sharp aura prevented the seeds from landing or attaching.
The Huntian Old Demon had been famous for many years.
Once his Huntian Cup closed, opening it from the inside became almost impossible.
Among this group, Xie Jingfei had the highest cultivation.
The sword followed the path of ultimate sharpness.
He was the only one here who might possibly split open the Huntian Cup.
He withdrew the sword intent that had been protecting several nearby companions and focused his mind completely.
Like flowing water and music, Yu Meng’s sound waves seamlessly took over the protection of the others.
Xie Jingfei executed the Shattered Jade Art, forcibly raising his cultivation by an entire major realm for a short time.
If he had faced the Huntian Old Demon alone, even with the Shattered Jade Art he would have had no chance of escaping.
But the Huntian Old Demon had trapped so many people inside the Huntian Cup at once.
Its power had inevitably been dispersed.
Between that increase and dispersion lay their chance to break free.
A point of sharp light appeared at Xie Jingfei’s fingertip, condensing into a treasure sword as bright as moonlight.
His sword intent grew increasingly sharp.
At the moment the moonlight fully formed into a sword in his hand, he seemed to merge completely with the blade itself.
His sharpness reached its absolute peak as he slashed fiercely toward the Huntian Cup.
Driven by the pressure of the sword intent, the murky gray world around them revealed the dim yellow inner wall of the cup.
Xie Jingfei’s sword was about to strike it.
But the wall suddenly seemed to rust.
Dense layers of dark brown growth spread across its surface.
Xie Jingfei abruptly halted before the wall, his body swaying.
“Senior Brother Xie?” Zhan Herong caught him, puzzled.
Xie Jingfei himself had stopped the sword strike.
By forcibly retracting the attack while under the Shattered Jade Art, he had already suffered backlash.
His breathing was now disordered and his face pale.
Yin Songquan also approached. Staring at the strange dark growth on the wall, he exclaimed in shock:
“Is that lichen? No… why does it contain the power of earth veins?!”
The strange moss formed a continuous layer, drawing out the power of the earth veins.
If Xie Jingfei had not forcibly stopped his strike just now, he might have severed that section of the earth veins.
“…Despicable.”
The Demonic Cultivators did not care about heaven and earth.
Using this as a hostage, they forced Xie Jingfei to abandon his sword.
Yin Songquan examined the strange lichen and said, “I can disperse this lichen for a brief moment. Senior Brother Xie…”
Xie Jingfei steadied his breathing.
“I can still strike.”
“Good.”
They quickly coordinated.
Yin Songquan and several Medicine King Valley disciples would concentrate on clearing the lichen.
The Wujiguan disciples would deploy a protective formation.
Yu Meng would assist with illusion-body techniques.
The Demonic Cultivators behind the scenes sensed their movements.
Those strange plants surged forward together.
The power of the Huntian Cup also gathered, its murky gray aura swirling heavily through the air.
The hidden Demonic Cultivators unleashed their own techniques.
The pressure on them increased sharply.
Yin Songquan and the others moved quickly.
The lichen on the cup wall began to recede, revealing a section of bare surface.
Sweat covered his forehead as he struggled to speak.
“Senior Brother Xie—”
Xie Jingfei’s sword light had already flared again.
Bright as a moon soaring into the sky, the cold sword intent pierced the cup wall.
A cracking sound echoed as a fissure instantly appeared.
Outside the cup came the furious roar of the Huntian Old Demon.
Just as the sword light was about to advance further, the Wujiguan formation could no longer hold and shattered.
The disciples of Wujiguan suffered backlash and collapsed from exhaustion.
Several vine-spears twisted together and shot toward the Medicine King Valley disciples and Xie Jingfei.
They were about to be pierced through.
Xie Jingfei ignored everything.
His entire focus remained on the sword.
The crack in the Huntian Cup suddenly burst open.
At the same moment, the vicious vines pierced through him and Yin Songquan.
No blood appeared.
The sound of the zither flowed like water around them.
The vines had pierced only illusions.
Yet Yin Songquan suddenly shouted urgently:
“Senior Sister Yu—!”
Xie Jingfei whipped his head around.
A vine had pierced straight through Yu Meng’s chest and abdomen.
The willow zither fell from her hands.
“Yu Meng!”
Xie Jingfei’s eyes nearly split with rage as he rushed toward her.
Yu Meng fell backward.
Blood spread across her chest and abdomen, blooming into countless bright red flowers.
Her eyes lost focus.
Her lips silently formed a single word.
“Go.”
In the next moment, she was drowned beneath countless red blossoms.
Yin Songquan grabbed Xie Jingfei tightly, his eyes bloodshot.
“Senior Brother Xie, go!”
“Go—!”
Xie Jingfei broke free from him.
“You go! I will kill him!”
Sword light shone coldly in his hand.
Above the gray sky within the Huntian Cup, a full moon suddenly appeared.
Xie Jingfei’s hair hung loose, blood staining the corner of his mouth.
Yet his eyes shone with terrifying cold brilliance.
His sword slashed toward the opening.
Outside the crack, another moon shadow suddenly appeared, like the reflection of the moon upon water.
A furious shout came from outside the Huntian Cup.
The barrier separating inside and outside shattered completely.
Xie Jingfei closed his eyes and collapsed, losing consciousness entirely.
…
The sun hung high in the sky.
Xie Jingfei slowly opened his eyes in confusion.
He was lying on the ground, watching white clouds drift leisurely across the sky.
A bird glided past overhead.
The wind brushed his hair against the corner of his mouth.
There were no sounds of battle.
Everything around him was peaceful and quiet.
He remembered losing consciousness.
Inside the Huntian Cup, he had swung three sword strikes.
All three had been made with his full strength.
When he forcibly stopped the first strike, he was already injured.
The second strike had barely been managed, worsening his injuries.
The third strike had exhausted everything he had.
Movement came from beside him.
Xie Jingfei turned his head and instantly scrambled upright, his eyes widening in shock and joy.
“Yu Meng?”
Yu Meng stood beside him completely unharmed.
Looking around again, he saw the cultivators who had died inside the Huntian Cup lying all over the ground.
Their breathing was steady, and none bore injuries.
It was as though they had merely fallen asleep.
Yet not far before them, the strange plants, the hidden Demonic Cultivators, and the cultivators themselves were still locked in a brutal battle.
None of them seemed able to see this abnormal scene.
The Huntian Cup had already been broken, yet many Demonic Cultivators were still lying in ambush outside.
From beginning to end, this entire affair had been a conspiracy targeting the orthodox cultivators of Suizhou.
The Demonic Cultivators wanted the Blood-Rust Blade.
But compared with the naturally united orthodox cultivators, their chances of obtaining it were far smaller.
So they laid this trap, intending to remove most of the orthodox cultivators of Suizhou first.
But how had they managed to stagnate the earth’s qi of eighteen counties without using a formation?
How had they hidden so many Demonic Cultivators without leaving any trace?
How had the activation of the Huntian Cup produced not the slightest fluctuation?
Most importantly—
What exactly was happening to them right now?
“Is this an Illusion Realm?” Yu Meng murmured in astonishment.
If it were not an illusion, how could they be standing here perfectly unharmed?
Yet with her mastery of illusions, she felt that the situation before her was somehow different from a true illusion.
Xie Jingfei stared at the strange sight before him.
Then he suddenly said:
“This is not an Illusion Realm. This is a Sword Domain.”
He abruptly turned around.
The Senior Brother Shuang who had previously been nowhere to be found was now leaning lazily against a large rock.
He sat slightly slanted, one hand resting on his knee, lightly tapping the hilt of his sword.