The two got lost in each other's arms, and after an unknown number of sessions they finally couldn't handle the toll and laid their heads to rest.
It was two days later when they awoke. A smile pasted on Ling Aotian's while a blush persisted in Xia Luo's. While getting dressed, they were silent. Well Xia Luo was. Ling Aotian's flattery reached the heavens.
After sometime, Xia Luo performed hand seals. These were to deactivate the screening formation she had put before the session. It was a formation that displaced them from space time and created a miniature mountain size world of their own. A feat only those above Void Shattering realm could perform.
As she performed hand seals, Ling Aotian inspected his body. He was shaken. He had passively broke through to the 5th heaven stage of the heaven merging realm.
"Damn! We have to do this more often ! "
It should be known that Ling Aotian practiced the Spirit Jade Controlling Arts. A technique unique only to him after he awoke the Jade body physique. It mainly enabled him to have twice the amount of spirituality as others on the same realm and thrice the control. Hence his cultivation speed was unrivalled.
Boom !!
No sooner had Xia Luo released the formation, than a resounding explosion tore of the peak of their mountain. They were stunned. Just what was going on? Who would actually dare challenge the Sect??
The next moment they appeared floating besides the mountain, their divine senses bursting forth, scouring the battlefield like a hundred thousand invisible eyes. The usually serene sight collapsed into chaos. Below them, the Ghostly Shadow Sect had become a graveyard of dreams.
Just how long had it been ? The damage delt was too nerve-racking but the two didn't have the time to take it all in. They continued assessing the situation,trying to find where to help.
Crimson firestorms clashed against jade gusts of wind. Lightning arced like heavenly whips, reducing stone walls and sacred pagodas to glowing slag. Figures in black, violet, and azure roared through the air. The sigils and talismans that protected the sect strained and shattered under the might of the intruders.
The situation was dire.
Three supreme sects. Rivals of equal standing. Now, traitorous opportunists all deciding to take GUI Ying out of the equation.
Their divine senses swept toward the core battlefield. Ling Aotian's spirit, like a celestial camera, panned over the battlefield, revealing the toll. Six of the ten Pinying Elders,those with the same status lay dead. Bodies mutilated beyond recognition. Their sould shattered. Soul lamps extinguished.
Only Elder Mei Chunhua and Elder Mo Lianyin remained.
Xia Luo's eyes narrowed. She turned and vanished into a swirl of frigid wind.
Ling Aotian clenched his fists and dove, spirit sword wisps orbiting him like hawks around a falconer.
***
The Mei mountain peak was thick with noxious mist. Trees had turned to fossilized bone. The grass beneath one's feet crumbled into black ash. Poison ruled here.
Elder Mei Chunhua stood amid the fumes, her robes shimmering with threads of violet and green. Her eyes glowed like twin moons of pestilence. Around her, a dozen or so enemy elders circulated their Qi - each a master of profound cultivation techniques. They were spread in a loose net, not daring to close in, in fear of her Extreme yin Poison Body.
Her Extreme Yin Poison Body released invisible miasma with every breath. Her steps painted death sigils across the soil while her gaze flickered with murderous intent.
With a flick of her fingers,her yuan spirit performed hand seals, releasing countless lotus petals of translucent venom, spiraling toward her enemies.
"She's using the Widow's Bloom Formation! Scatter!"
Too late. Three of the attackers inhaled a sliver of her mist. Their skin turned corpse-gray. Their eyes bled and their bodies fell without a scream.Dead.
The rest were terrified.
They all knew that she had exhausted herself due to participating in concecutive battle but, they knew that the first to push her was going to die in her last stand.
Abruptly, Mei Chunhua dashed forward. Not wanting to give her enemies any leeway.
Seeing this, the remaining enemies unleashed their moves. Flaming spears, sonic roars, mountain-splitting fists,spiritual attacks and other moves sprung towards Elder Mei Chunhua. In return, she only smiled.
With a whispered incantation, her poison thickened suddenly into a shimmering cocoon.Blocking the attacks as she continued charging forward.
Pfftth !!
One of the invaders coughed up blood. He had directly been bombarded with the poison cacoon.
She smiled wickedly, pouncing at another enemy as the poison Cacoon desipated then concentrated into a ghostly sickle.
Slash !!
Another one fell. But in return Mei Chunhua coughed up blood, clearly showing she had payed a price for that attack. She was at her last breath, and ther attackers seemed to have realized this. They attacked relentlessly from all sides.
Just as one cultivator tried to flank her, frost surged across the battlefield. A spike of jagged blue ice pierced his dantian. Elder Xia Luo descended like a falling star, her icy robes fluttering in the wind,calm and cold.
"Apologies for the delay," Xia Luo murmured, summoning a tempest of hail and razor-sharp frost winds that lingered around her. Ready to be deployed.
The battle had changed.
Together, the two women became a tempest of poison and ice -death given form and elegance.
***
Elsewhere, at the edge of a collapsed mountain ridge, Elder Mo Lianyin sat cross-legged on a floating zither of darkwood and silver. Her white robes were streaked with crimson. Blood dripped from her lips, but her fingers never stopped moving.
Every pluck of her zither sent sound blades slicing through the sky. Ethereal strings shimmering in all directions. The air itself vibrated with deadly notes.
Seven deadly enemy elders danced like moths around her, forming a ring of death. But they were cautious. Too cautious. They too wanted to exhaust her first before going for the killing blow.
One then made his move, charging with a spirit hammer glowing red-hot, aiming to close the distance and destroy the seven string dark wood zither.
Reciprocating ,Mo Lianyin struck a single deep note. There was no sound, leaving the enemies dumbfounded. Looking at each other with knowing expressions.
"She is exhausted, we should attack."
Cried out one of the attackers towards the others. No sooner had they moved than...
Boom! Boom!
The man's bones exploded from within. Protruding out of his skin like a porcupine. He died.
"Uncle !! "
Screemed another as he tried to cause sound chaos with a sonic talisman. He thought that if the sound waves were in disarray he would be able to behead her.
How wrong he was.
She meerly changed the melody, weaving dissonance with precision and sending visible rainbow colored curves sound waves.The talisman backfired, bursting into shards of cursed steel.
Still, the pressure mounted. Her yuan spirit was stretched thin and her body shivering.
She coughed up blood.
And this invited them to attack together with frenzied attacks. A crusade of attacks landed on the zither, dissipating and absorbed through the air. But in return, she coughed up another three mouthfull of blood, making the enemies even more frenzied with their attacks.
Taking advantage of the chaos, one elder closed in with a blade against her neck, but right at that moment..
A glint. Followed by a humongous shadow and swishing sounds.Dozens of silver swords slashed down from above like judgment from the heavens.
Ling Aotian had descended, his hands behind his back, swords floating lazily in orbit.
"Your orchestra is missing its percussion," he said.
Mo Lianyin smiled faintly. "Welcome, Elder Ling. Shall we compose death together?"
What followed was symphony and slaughter. Mo Lianyin's zither sang arias of despair while Ling Aotian conducted death with a flick of his fingers. Swords curved through the air like falcons in dive, answering each note with a slash.
The two complimented each other. With zither music at long range disrupting the spirit and soul of the enemies while Aotian instantly disposed of the trash lazily.
Swords danced through the terrain in specific formations, making sure to unlish slaughter in the most efficient way possible.
After two incence stick worth of time, a dozen heads layed dead on the cold earth, blood painting the world crimson.
" Aotian? " Called out Mo Lianyin.
" Yes Elder Mo Lianying. Do you have instructions for this junior brother?"
" Where were you ?"
Ling Aotian blushed, reluctant to say the truth.
Mo Lianyin chuckled,having already guessed as she looked at a battlefield covered with ice.
Crack!
Suddenly a large crack appeared above the two. Looking up, they couldn't help but worry.
***
First heaven : white Era heaven.
Above them all, in the First Heaven of Martial Grotto Continent, reality itself strained.
Gui Ying, the Patriarch, stood alone against three sect leaders. Each one a titan. Each one on the cusp of becoming Venerate.
They were all resigned old monsters that were nearing the end of their lifespan but reinvigareted by prospect of becoming Venerate.
One wielded fire that burned space itself.
Another rode the wind, invisible and omnipresent.
The third, a body cultivator with lightning veins carved into his flesh, roaring like a thunder god.
At the center of the three,Gui Ying floated with the stillness of an emperor. Cloaked in robes of shadow-thread and starlight, he held no weapon. He was the weapon.
He raised a single hand.
Space collapsed.
A chasm opened in the sky, swallowing a sunbeam.
Ghostly arms surged from within the void, grabbing the fire cultivator and tearing through his spirit defenses. The wind cultivator answered with a scream that twisted clouds into spears, but Gui Ying flicked his wrist and space bent, redirecting the attack toward the lightning giant.
The battle that ensued was not one of mortals. It was a clash of laws.
Each movement from Gui Ying restructured the battlefield. He stitched space like cloth, blinked through attacks, and split the sky with ghost claws that roared in a thousand tongues.
The only reason the sect below remained intact was because they fought in the skies. Had they descended...
It would have been a disaster.
***
" Aotian ?? "
A withered voice called out to the Ling Aotian that was starring at the White Era Heaven. He was stunned by the difference between him and those titans. It should be known that both Aotian and GUI Ying were at the heaven merging realm with only difference in heaven stages.
" Wait, Elder Mo didn't call out !! "
He finally got out of his stupar.
"Who are you ? "
He asked decisively with his shaking voice.
Yes, he was stunned. That voice just now wasn't a spiritual transmission and neither was it a physical summoning. It was completely mysterious, making Aotian both cautious and curious.
"We have no time for this. I am the spirit of the Yin Ghostly Palace and I have instructions from GUI Ying..! "
Aotian was left without words, his mind in disarray. What did the voice mean spirit of the Ghostly palace? Wasn't the palace a heaven merged artifact? How could it have an item spirit ? Did it mean it had it had assimilated with heaven? Wouldn't that mean it was part of heavens will?
He had too many questions. But before he could voice them the Ying Ghostly Palace spoke.
" This battle is lost. GUI Ying cannot win and is going to -- "
This time he didn't let the voice finish.
" What do you mean he cannot win? The Patriach is clearly wining !! "
"Don't interrupt me again child!! " It spoke, it's voice demanding absolute obedience. Ling Aotian was struck dumb. Questions began flooding into his mind again.
Who could its command carry heavens soul manifestation?Can heavens soul manifestation even be used by an item spirit?
" Listen Aotian!! We don't have much time. GUI Ying used his heavenly soul manifestation to pear through the strings of fate and destiny... He peares towards the future and..."
It hesitated for a moment before continuing..
"He discovered that the Venerate Luck palace appearance was summoned focifully, and presently doesn't have enough karmic luck to defy the heavens. He found the scheme of the previous demon Venerate: The Evil soul demon Venerate. "
The voice paused, seemingly reminiscing about something. Then it spoke.
"Evil Soul demon Venerate Xie Ren plans to use the Venerate Luck Palace to revive and ascend to the Immortal world by absorbing the souls of all living things in Martial Grotto heaven. "
Ling Aotian gassped. Evil soul demon Venerate Xie Ren was the ninth Venerate of the Martial Grotto heaven. A tyrant that reached the pinical of the world through slaughter and absorbing the souls of cultivators. But that wasn't what made him terrifying. What made him terrifying was his character. He was evil. So evil that the heavenly daos bled when he was born. All auspicious beasts became extinct during his reign.
"Aotian ?"
"Yes senior ?"
"GUI Ying has left instructions for you. Do you accept..?"
"Yes , I Ling Aotian shall listen to your guidance"
After accepting, he vanished, leaving Elder Mo Lianyin stunned.
***
Ling Aotian appeared inside the Ying Ghostly Palace. A flood of information entering his mind, giving instructions on his next steps.
"Wait! Senior,what will happen to you and Patriach GUI Ying after carrying out this plan? "Asked Aotian hurriedly .
"We will be erased from this world. Never to exist in the future and not in the past. The sect will also perish due to affiliation and sharing the same name as GUI Ying. "
The voice replyed codly, not revealing any sort of emotion whatsoever. Ling Aotian on the other hand, couldnt stop his body from shaking .
It was too much responsibility for him to bear soley, without the aid of the sect. So he asked?
"Why me though ? Why did the Patriach choose me? "
"Because you are the only one with a 1% chance to win !! "
"What!! "
Aotian was further stunned. It seemed that he was using up all his shock of a lifetime at this moment.
"Senior ?" He called out shakily.
"We don't have much time Aotian ,begin the transmission !"
Ling Aotian composed himself after hearing the Palace spirit's reminder. He ascended to the top of the hall and sat at GUI Ying's seat. Legs intertwined in lotus style.
Emerald divine light covered him. His yuan spirit emerged out of his body which withered as soon as his spirit left. The divine light started to merge with his spirit and true insight began to mold into his spirit.
Ten minutes later, he was still bathed by the divine light. 20 minutes... 30 minutes... 50 minutes...
When his spirit couldnt hold on any longer, a cold hand suddenly pressed his back.
"Patriach !? " Aotian cried out but the Patriach couldn't spare a word. He was forcefully inscribing his true insight into his spirit.
Aotian started to feel dizzy. His spirit began to wither and his sight became fuzzy. But was still enough to see the Sect be destroyed by a combination move of the three sect leaders. It was the shared vision from GUI Ying , as if asking him not to forget.
His vision dimmed and then ...
Darkness.