Lian Zhuiyue fused Luo Clan’s Four Seasons Sword Formation with Mount Daluo’s formation to produce a field of mist in Nieyao, allowing them to disable the enemy’s vision whilst granting allies stealth.
Sima Huai slit the throats of three soldiers, then hid himself back in the mist. “Cleared out the outside.”
“Sixth, set the formation,” Ming Suwen, in white, instructed.
Mount Daluo’s primary objective was to set up Dragon-Slaying Formation in the centre of Nieyao in order to weaken the dragons, but Lian Zhuiyue wasn’t up to scratch, so Luo Ming supplemented his education. Serving as the formation’s foundation, the fengqi shenmu would to trigger a response that’d incite in-fighting between the dragons. Only then could they utilise the phoenix’s power to suppress the dragon race’s aggression markedly. While the formation alone couldn’t slay dragons, it would make life significantly easier for the Divine Realm adepts tasked with slaying the dragon’s sons.
Sima Huai and Xia’er moved wood, drew the formation and placed wood. Hong Jiu assumed patrol duty for them in case anyone followed them. Yes, they had a lot to do, but they were also afraid of staying around Ming Suwen for they knew she was in a foul mood based off her posture alone. Even though she was particularly aloof today and seemingly ready to lash out, she had been in a bad mood for a while.
Sima Huai and Xia’er both agreed that silence was their best choice with an eye exchange. Hong Jiu had his experience in the pugilistic world to act as his alarm. Lian Zhuiyue was the only one who wasn’t afraid. As he set the formation, he scrubbed his head. “Grandaunt, are you in a bad mood?”
Hong Jiu clocked Lian Zhuiyue. Sima Hui clobbered him twice using his mace. Xia’er landed a flying sidekick flush on his face.
They had a guess they’d bet on as to why Ming Suwen wasn’t happy. In the seventeen days leading up to the commencement, Ming Feizhen helped Abels and Shen Yiren, had a conversation with Beussent, held strategy meetings with the Divine Realm adepts through the night, drank and had fun with Tang Ye and Su Xiao back in Xiuyu until the next morning, yet he never visited Ming Suwen once or said a word. Needless to say, he wasn’t purposely avoiding her. They all shared the ominous knowledge behind why he didn’t want to speak to her or see her. Suffice to say, she knew his reasons if they did, fuelling her anger even more.
“We have finished drawing the formation. Please take the lead, Grandaunt.”
The four Mount Daluo members needed to apply Mount Daluo’s internal discipline simultaneously for an hour in order to sustain the formation’s power. The main controller of the formation needed advanced internal strength, deep knowledge of the formation, sharp senses and the ability to adapt on the fly. Among them, Ming Suwen was the only one who ticked all the boxes.
“Shiba, guard the formation.” Ming Suwen headed into the centre of the formation, then transferred internal energy from her hand to a piece of wood – with the support of the other three disciples. Upon sensing a draft graze their bodies, Ming Suwen analysed the coalescing aggressive qi and then opened her eyes. “Activate the formation.”
A gravitational force imposed itself upon the dragon kin inside Nieyao. As long as Mount Daluo’s team continued to dial up the intensity over the next hour, the formation accomplished its goal.
Although some weight was lifted off Lian Zhuiyue’s shoulders now, he was not going to call it a day until the formation fulfilled its duty. As he was at the formation’s centre, his senses were heightened, but it was Hong Jiu who yelled out, “Come out!”
The mist disappeared in similar fashion to someone tearing it apart or it being sucked away. Five hundred soldiers equipped in the same black armour as Gewu’s private military, except they had snakes coiled around them or tigers accompanying them, already surrounded Mount Daluo’s group. It was immediately clear that they were comparable to the imperial court’s special unit of one thousand soldiers.
The upward curve to one corner of Qiushui’s lips stood out in particular. “Master said you had a formation expert among you. I have been waiting for a long time. At first, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find you. Thanks to you thinking you know better, however, you exposed your location with the mist.”
Though Mount Daluo’s group expected an attack, they didn’t expect the enemy prepared five hundred soldiers for them. All else being equal, there was already a clear victor.
Qiushui stopped her sweeping gaze on Ming Suwen: “I’ve heard of The Demoness, but it’s hard to imagine just how beautiful she is. You’ve certainly exceeded my expectations.”
Ming Suwen didn’t bat an eyelid.
Qiushui felt inferior to Ming Suwen from the moment she saw the latter. The more she looked, the more defeats she suffered. The corner of Qiushui’s lips twitched. “You sure are stuck up. Once I’ve captured you, I have plenty of ways to make you submit. I can’t wait to see your pride break down.”
“I have your vice-patriarch,” Ming Suwen asserted.
Qiushiu’s simper vanished without a trace. For months, they had been searching for their vice-patriarch to no avail. “So you decided to oppose us from the beginning. Kill her first.”
The four in the formation could only afford to speak. If the formation were to be sabotaged now, the four of them would wound up severely hurt. Two soldiers advanced, only to be sent reeling subsequent to two thuds before they could take a third step.
Hong Jiu dusted his hands: “Oi, wench.”
“What did you just call me?”
“You ever heard of a punching bag beating its hitter? What makes you think a few hundred more will change that?”
“Hmph, you may be stronger than me, but do you think you can win against five hundred soldiers taking turns on you? I’ll give you a hundred men to fight. You’ll eventually tire. What if we all attack at once? You think you can protect the formation whilst fighting against us?”
Hong Jiu would need over a hundred exchanges to incapacitate Qiushui, so protecting the formation… never mind fighting five hundred more soldiers on top. Yet, he showed sorrow instead of fear. He pivoted his feet apart, held his open left hand anteriorly and open right hand posteriorly. “… The Proud Dragon Repents.”
Though Qiushui flinched first, she quickly switched back to a derisive attitude. “The Proud Dragon Repents” was the last technique of Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms. Despite the damage it could inflict reaching mythological levels, it had been centuries since anyone mastered it, which was why Qiushui called Hong Jiu’s claim a bluff.
Qiushui’s smirk quickly vanished as unimaginable pressure sped her heart rate up. It truly was akin to coming face to face with a monster; not even moulding qi helped.
I-is this really The Proud Dragon Repents?
Upon looking over her shoulder, Qiushui found all of the soldiers were grimacing due to the same challenge. If their heart rates continued rising, they’d die without a fight. She intended to urge them to withdraw and then plan their comeback. Alas, a frigid breeze assailed the nape of their necks. The last time Qiushui was alarmed to this extent was when she was trained to assassinate and avoid being assassinated as a young girl growing up in Sky Palace. She sunk down right before a sword could remove her head from her shoulders.
Qiushui managed to escape death at the hands of the assassin attired in black. Howbeit… all the soldiers she brought with her blasted blood from their chests, waists, necks or bottom of their mouths at the same time. She had yet to process how it happened or shake off the chill when she heard, “… What joy is there in life? What misery is there in death?”
Qiushui turned back to the front, and there he was, a young man who seemed as though he never felt joy once in his life. His face would be the last sight in her life. She didn’t have the luxury to feel the pain of him dragging her heart out of its enclosure because fear and bafflement were the only thoughts on her mind as eternal darkness welcomed itself in.
The scholar threw away Qiushui’s heart, then wiped the blood off his hands with a handkerchief whilst Hong Jiu watched him, unsure how to react.
Ming Suwen broke her silence. “Would you happen to be Boundless Resident?”
Boundless Resident placed his hands in salute. “League of Assassins’ Ku Hai. He is here with two hundred assassins under orders to offer you assistance. We will protect you with our lives.”
Ming Suwen offered a smile as her way of expressing thanks.
The two hundred assassins entered and left without any detectable signs. Even now, nobody knew where they were hiding. As a matter of fact, they could all be A-rank wanted fugitives given Master Ku, one of the highest-ranking members of League of Assassins, had shown up. There were only two people who could order them to travel as far as Nanjiang: one of them was League of Assassins’ owner. The other man was…
The corner of Ming Suwen’s lips crept up involuntarily, yet her eyes were more moist than usual. How could she be oblivious to what he was thinking? “What a dork. Why would you dedicate the strongest force to protecting me? If you lose, what would I stay in this world for if you’re gone?”
***
Ming Feizhen ambled through the deep interior of Nieyao, where not a soul was in sight. “This must be the spot.”
Ming Feizhen brushed aside foliage taller than him to unveil a stone door laced in moss, covering the entrance to a cavern. Since he didn’t know where the contraption to open the door was, he employed the time-tested method – lifting the door up with brute strength. In spite of the putrid smell and sense of danger, he strolled in.
It had been nearly five hundred years since anyone visited the enormous underground palace because it was so tucked away that not even Gewu was aware of its existence. While it was a palace nominally, there were no murals, embellished columns, buildings, nothing. The only thing it consisted of was a large vacant cavern. Its construction dated so far back that it was just written off as a “wonder” of the world. By extension, it was considered part of the “Mystical Era”.
Luminescent pearl in hand, Ming Feizhen spoke to himself as he descended a set of stairs. “They say Nieyao was where Beussent’s Shiri Palace was located half a millennium ago, but few know the first Shaman Monarch’s Shaman Monarch Palace was located here, too.”
The window that the first Shaman Monarch ruled Xiacang Anxi coincided with when one of Six Evils dominated Xiacang Anxi.
“People popularly sum up Mystical Era in one word: inconceivable. Hardly anyone alive can provide a concrete answer, so it’s understandable for people to be uninformed. Having spent ten-odd years talking to my shifu, I partially believe the stories, though I don’t know how much is fact and how much is fiction.”
Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, Ming Feizhen crossed the flat zone to two ginormous doors on the other side.
“Even though there are uncountable legends of Shaman Monarch in Xiacang Anxi, the most popular one must be how he rose above Nanjiang’s monarch when he was only a commoner. I kept ruminating why he’d go there and how he succeeded in something so outrageous. Think and think, I thought of something that would explain it.
“Let’s say the King of that era was a King who cared for his people, and let’s assume Shaman Monarch happened to possess some sort of instrument that could obliterate Xiacang Anxi. In that case, Shaman Monarch had a means of holding Xiacang Anxi’s citizens hostage. What sort of instrument would allow one to destroy a nation? I know of one.” Ming Feizhen had to try a tad in order to open a gap for him to fit through the big doors. “I figured that Shaman Monarch had his way in Nanjiang thanks to you, huh?” Ming Feizhen stopped upon sighting “Chi”.
Baidizi would be but an infant in comparison to Chi. Once it opened its heterochromia eyes, it was easy to see how it could flatten a city on its own.
“Am I right, Six Evils’ leader, Pangu?”
Trivia
Master Ku – He’s the same person Ming Feizhen alluded to back in the arc where he was investigating Orange Prince and ran into League of Assassins’ Sisi.
Luminescent pearl – They’re the equivalent of glow-in-the-dark items nowadays.
