Guardians of Mountain and Sea - Chapter 16

A flush suffused Lin Pu’s face, looking as though she had just emerged from a pile of rouge.

She lowered her gaze and murmured softly, “I didn’t.”

The two were of similar height. Lingyi leaned in slightly, tilting her head back to follow Lin Pu’s gaze down to her own small, lustrous bare feet. Her lips curled into a smirk as she teased, “Do they look good?”

As she spoke, one jade like foot stepped playfully onto Lin Pu’s boot, her toes pressing down with a gentle squeeze. The small silver bell tied to her ankle with a thin red cord gave a crisp chime, following its mistress’s movements.

Amidst a faint, lingering fragrance, Lin Pu’s eyes met Lingyi’s. The little fairy, her back turned to the crowd, wore a shallow smile, her eyes shimmering like autumn ripples.

It was too close.

Heat surged from Lin Pu’s cheeks to the tips of her ears. She hastily retreated two steps to create distance, turning her head away, not daring to look at her.

The constrained expression of the little rogue cultivator before her brought Lingyi immense pleasure. Especially since they were both women, this sense of triumph felt several times more satisfying.

Lingyi let out a satisfied chuckle, straightened her posture, and said with an air of mock seriousness, “I just heard of your deeds, Fellow Daoist; they are truly extraordinary. Your discernment is superb, your archery divine, and with such a clever mind, you actually managed to lure those demons into the trap, using golden arrows to form a cage to imprison and slay them. With such temperament and natural talent, if you have no master, how about joining the Myriad Demon Sect with me?”

The true disciples of a Heavenly Sect were granted two spots every hundred years to bring outsiders back to the sect as personal attendants. Though called servants, their names were officially recorded in the registry of inner sect disciples. This was equivalent to a single leap to the heavens, stepping directly into the inner circle of a Heavenly Sect.

While the surrounding rogue cultivators looked on with envy, they saw the third realm cultivator blush and shake her head. “Thank you for your favor, Fairy, but I already have a master. I have joined the Feather Mountain Sword Domain.”

In this remote, tiny Fan City, two disciples of Heavenly Sects had gathered at once. One was a true disciple of an evil sect, and the other had fought alongside them to exterminate the demons.

The rogue cultivators discussed this with great relish, feeling a sense of shared glory. However, Lin Pu’s spiritual senses were sharp; she noticed the fairy’s attitude instantly grew much colder. Although Lingyi’s smile remained bright, it no longer reached her eyes.

“In that case, I have been forward.”

Lingyi nodded to her with a thin smile and turned toward the demonic plants. Before she even reached the black coffin, the elegant beauty frowned and looked back in confusion. “This black coffin, was the seal broken before?”

As soon as she spoke, the final teleportation array suddenly exploded. Countless cultivators burst into a gore of flesh and blood, dying tragically on the spot. A bloody mist rose abruptly.

Though her cultivation was low, Lin Pu’s Geng Metal spiritual sense was best at detecting sharp, lethal crises. Her hair stood on end. A bone chilling coldness struck from behind. Lin Pu instinctively drew her bow and turned.

A flash of dark light struck; the bow snapped, and Lin Pu was sent flying while clutching her tiger beast. Fortunately, although the spiritual tool was ruined, it blocked the fatal blow for her, and she suffered no major injuries.

The Demon Sect’s true disciple reacted swiftly. She clapped her hands, releasing her Jade Bracelet Cold Sparrows. The spiritual birds cried out from high above, conjuring a water curtain to protect the crowd. With a sharp shout, two cold swords flew from beneath her feet toward a corner. Where the swords struck, a translucent humanoid figure slowly manifested.

The invisibility spell was broken. A ghostly wind rose as ten thousand spirits wailed. The last glow of the setting sun vanished, and the sky turned dark. A foul smelling blood mist enveloped all of Fan City as a strange, withered corpse appeared, dressed in a dragon robe with ink patterned flowing light and gold trim.

The corpse was covered in dark green mold and cadaverous spots; its nose was collapsed, its mouth rotten, and its face so shriveled it was unrecognizable. Gore and black mud surged from beneath its feet and were sucked into its body. The originally gaunt frame slowly swelled to three zhang in height, looking exceptionally hideous and terrifying.

Even though this ghastly monster exerted such heavy pressure that it made one’s heart turn cold with fear, strangely, no one’s spiritual senses reacted to it. Even Lingyi had only launched that earlier strike by relying on her Gui Water technique to sense the flow of blood on the ground.

Lingyi’s face turned pale. With the insight and experience of a Demon Sect true disciple, she could conclude that even with her peak Earth tier strength, facing this ferocious monster was a precarious gamble at best. She shifted her hand seals, and the ornaments around her body transformed into the protective glow of spiritual tools. She resolved to risk her life to fight this monster. As a genius of the Demon Sect, she did not practice the Coward’s Way; she could not abandon a city of people and flee without a fight.

The dragon robed corpse roared at the sky. The Cold Sparrow was struck as if by a heavy blow; it gave a mournful cry and fell from the heights. The hemispherical water curtain was instantly torn open, and the cultivators protected within were immediately reduced to blood mist.

Lingyi’s figure vanished, reappearing in mid air a moment later to intercept the monster’s strike. As the mistress took the pressure, the Cold Sparrow wobbled back into the air, struggling to maintain the water shield.

A dazzling light exploded in the sky. The dragon robed corpse was pushed back five zhang, while the protective lights before the Demon Sect fairy all shattered. She spat out blood and was sent reeling back.

A figure lunged out from the water shield, rushing forward to catch her. Seeing this, Lingyi could not help but feel a sense of helpless exasperation. Why was a third realm cultivator joining the fray? Could she not see everyone else was staying hidden? If she tried to be a hero, she might be killed by the monster’s residual evil energy. Righteous cultivators were the most troublesome.

But they were fellow disciples of the Heavenly Sects, after all. She could not just watch this fool walk to her death. Lingyi sighed and prepared to cast a spell to push her away, but she saw the Sword Domain disciple suddenly accelerate, actually taking the full force of the bloody evil spell on her body.

Unable to dodge, Lingyi could only watch as the person grabbed her around the waist. Their foreheads collided, and Lingyi closed her eyes in a silent lament. Never mind the residual evil energy from the corpse; even under normal circumstances, a collision between an Earth tier cultivator with a nascent celestial body and a Human tier rogue would be a bloody mess. It was a pity for the beautiful clothes she wore today.

With a dull thud, the fairy’s head throbbed with a jarring pain. She wondered if the head of a Metal attribute cultivator was really this hard. This thought flashed through her mind, and Lingyi only had time to open her eyes for a split second before the overwhelming dizziness forced her into unconsciousness.

Before passing out, she saw the young cultivator who caught her looking cold and solemn. Her amber eyes were crystal clear, and a glowing talisman appeared on her forehead, from which a red sword light erupted. The sword light tore through the black clouds. The ghostly energy sizzled away, the blood haze was incinerated, and the stars and moon reappeared in the night sky.

A red sun leapt into the center of the heavens. It was True Monarch Hong Ling, Mo Xianjun, and her Blazing Sun Scorching Sword Technique. The Senior Sister had sealed a miniature burning sun within her Junior Sister’s sea of consciousness.

Under the starry sky, the brilliant red sun was fierce and overbearing. The piercing, ghostly cold was driven out by the sunlight. The spirit energy dissipated, and for a hundred miles around Fan City, it was as bright as day.

Seeing this, the dragon robed corpse roared in shock and rage. From deep within the earth, ten thousand ghosts wailed in response. The ground rumbled and cracked into deep furrows. As thousands of malicious spirits crawled out, a thick, foul blood mist rose again from the cracks.

However, the rising mist had not even moved three zhang before it sizzled into nothingness. The spirits were scorched into ash, yet the response from the underground continued unabated. A thousand ghosts were destroyed, yet ten thousand more crawled out. The grim ghostly energy surged continuously, slowly beginning to resist the scorching of the red sun.

Lin Pu landed while holding the unconscious fairy, and the surviving rogue cultivators immediately crowded around. The Cold Sparrow flapped its wings, shrinking the water curtain and landing on Lin Pu’s shoulder, standing snugly next to little Wan Xiang.

With two cute spiritual birds perched on her left shoulder, Lin Pu carefully held the eyes closed Fairy Lingyi against her right shoulder. Her eyes were filled with awe as she looked up at the red sun. Before leaving the secluded realm, her Senior Sister had mentioned that the protective soul talisman sealed in her forehead was only a trump card to save her life and could not be actively triggered. Cultivation is about finding one’s own Dao, not being raised as a hothouse flower protected by elders.

Therefore, this talisman would only trigger when she encountered an enemy of overwhelming strength. If the opponent was within the first five realms and she was defeated, it was simply her own fault.真君 True Monarch wouldn’t have the face to come out and bully people on behalf of her little Junior Sister.

But now was different. Even a sixth realm Demon Sect true disciple had been defeated in a single exchange with this corpse, which was undoubtedly a Heaven tier existence. Encountering such a monster, Lin Pu had unhesitatingly rushed forward to take the blow for Lingyi. Sure enough, the soul talisman was triggered instantly.

The cracks in the ground widened. The tall buildings and houses of Fan City collapsed one after another. Screams echoed through the city as countless people fell into the abyss, and more and more evil creatures crawled out. The ghostly energy left behind after the spirits were scorched was entirely absorbed by the dragon robed corpse. Its body grew even larger, and the blood mist almost turned solid.

A rogue cultivator in the crowd cried out urgently, “Fellow Daoist, that flaming red sun looks like it cannot suppress the ghostly energy of the whole city! Is there any other way?”

The female cultivator’s lips curled into a smirk. She shot him an arrogant glance. “Just watch!”

Before her voice faded, a resonant sword chime rang out. A cold gleam emerged from the center of the sun. A long sword, its hilt wrapped in a spirited red silk, transformed into ten thousand red sword shadows in the air. Like a silver river waterfall, they poured down in an instant.

It was as if the heavenly river had been overturned. Fan City was enveloped in a rain of sword energy. After the sword fall hit the ground, it transformed into a soaring conflagration, fiercely roasting the entire city.

Lingyi woke up at that moment. Earlier, the soul talisman had sensed the evil spell left on her by the corpse. In its haste to trigger, the shock to her sea of consciousness had knocked her out. However, the True Monarch’s Dao was magnificent; it only punished evil and did not harm the innocent. Once the vibration in her mind subsided, she naturally woke up.

She looked at the sea of fire covering the city in astonishment. This fire was extraordinary; the buildings, people, and livestock remained completely unharmed by the flames, feeling only a slight warmth. Yet, within the light, ten thousand ghosts and demonic corpses shrieked as they turned to ash. Three breaths later, the flames on the ground gathered together, and the red blaze rolled down the cracks in the earth like a tide.

The mortals who had fallen into the ravines were lifted up by clouds of fire. From the depths of the earth, the wails of ghosts echoed. The ground rumbled as the open trenches sealed shut, and the people in the city were shaken to the ground.

“Fellow Daoist, watch out!” a rogue cultivator screamed in warning.

Despite the terrifying sword waterfall and the sea of flames, the dragon robed corpse was still alive. Its body had been mostly incinerated, shrinking back to the height of a normal man. Foul meat and tainted blood leaked from its body, and the dragon robe was tattered and soaked in black blood. The monster let out a hideous, ferocious roar and leaped ten zhang, pouncing directly at Lin Pu.

The red sun suddenly dimmed, and a woman in a yellow gown stepped out from within it. Standing high in the sky, she casually waved her hand. The red sun behind her exploded and reformed instantly in front of Lin Pu, crushing the corpse into a pulp.

Then, the red sun disintegrated. The world shakingly beautiful woman gave a slight smile and transformed back into a dim soul talisman, vanishing into Lin Pu’s forehead.

The field was silent. A moment later, someone said tremblingly, “Was that the True Monarch?”

For a long time, no one dared to answer.

Support Guardians of Mountain and Sea